Minister Kaur sets out £6bn Pride in Place plan for 300 communities

If you hear ministers talk about regeneration, it can all sound a bit distant. Minister Kaur’s speech to Business in the Community’s Pride of Place annual summit tried to pull the idea back to street level: places improve when the people who live there are treated as partners, not as an afterthought. That matters because this was not just a funding speech. It was an argument about how change happens. In Kaur’s telling, government, councils, charities, businesses and residents all have a part to play, but the people closest to the problem should have a real say in the answer.

She grounded that argument in her own story. Kaur said she grew up on free school meals in one of Southampton’s most deprived neighbourhoods, and that what stayed with her was not wealth but the way people showed up for one another. For readers, this is worth noticing: politicians often use personal history to explain why they see policy the way they do. She linked that experience to her 14 years in local government, including time as Leader of Southampton City Council. The lesson she wanted the room to take away was simple: lasting change rarely arrives from a government department on its own. It usually works better when local services, community groups and employers are pulling in the same direction.

The problem, she argued, is that the system often pushes places the other way. In the speech, Kaur pointed to siloed funding, short-term cycles and a habit of commissioning services instead of building genuine partnership. In plain English, that means neighbourhoods can end up chasing separate pots of money for separate problems, even when real life does not split so neatly. **What this means:** a community can receive money without feeling more secure, more connected or more hopeful. If one project ends after a year, another starts late, and local groups are treated only as contractors, people on the ground experience stop-start policy rather than steady improvement.

This is where the government’s Pride in Place programme comes in. Kaur said the scheme will direct £6 billion over the next decade to more than 300 communities, with local people put in the driving seat of investment plans. She also pointed to a new place-based unit in government and support for place-led budgets, which together are meant to give areas more control over what is funded and why. In the speech, each Pride in Place community is described as receiving £2 million a year for 10 years, with MPs supporting the work as place champions. Kaur used Millbrook estate in Southampton as a local example, saying a chair and neighbourhood board have already been appointed. **What it means:** this is meant to be a shift from bidding upwards for permission to shaping plans locally.

Kaur also spent time explaining why business is in this conversation at all. Through the Office for the Impact Economy, the government says it wants philanthropy, impact investment and purpose-led firms to work more easily with public bodies and community groups. That might sound technical, but the basic idea is straightforward: if employers are already rooted in a place, they can help with jobs, skills, literacy and everyday stability, not just one-off donations. Her example was Business in the Community’s book drive, which she said supported more than 20,000 children from deprived communities, including her old school. You do not have to treat business as a saviour to see the point here. Local firms often control buildings, training routes, supply chains and influence, so whether they join in seriously can change the scale of what a neighbourhood is able to do.

One of the clearest case studies in the speech came from the West Midlands. Kaur said employers including Greene King and Severn Trent are working with government and charities to open opportunities for people who are often overlooked by standard recruitment, including care leavers, ex-offenders and young people with mental health challenges. That is a useful reminder that regeneration is not only about new paving, fresh paint or shiny town-centre projects. **Why it matters:** if a place looks better but the same people are still shut out of work, training and confidence, the change will feel thin. A strong local economy should widen access, not simply improve appearances.

Near the end of the speech, Kaur moved from funding to trust. She said society is becoming more fragmented and divisive, and that many people tell her on the doorstep they no longer believe a better future is coming for them or their families. Whether you agree with every part of the government’s approach or not, that diagnosis will feel familiar to a lot of readers. Place-based policy matters because trust is local before it is national. People notice if the library disappears, if the youth club closes, if the high street empties, and if decisions are always made somewhere else. Money can help, but trust also depends on who is heard, who sits on the board, and whether local people can see where decisions are being made.

The strongest reading of this speech is that it asks a fair question: what would happen if regeneration was designed with communities rather than done to them? That is the promise inside Pride in Place. Ten-year funding is more serious than short pilots, but real partnership means sharing power, not just inviting residents to approve a plan after the big calls have already been made. If you want a simple test for policies like this, keep four questions in mind. Who decides? Who benefits? How long does the money last? And what happens when local people disagree? Kaur’s speech is hopeful, and at its best it points towards a more grounded kind of regeneration. The next step is proving that communities really are in the driving seat when money is spent, not only when the launch is announced.