About This Project
Local Trust: Neighbourhoods in action: achieving big results by working hyper-locally
In October 2024, Shared Intelligence completed a landscape review of local government’s work supporting communities at the neighbourhood level, commissioned by Local Trust. The aim of the report was to provide the local government sector with up-to-date information about the role of neighbourhood working in tackling local disadvantage. The report presents in-depth findings from 34 local authorities covering a variety of approaches, including: use of community hubs, community safety models and health-led neighbourhood initiatives.
Working together with Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI), Si produced a structured sample of 50 local authorities, with at least ten IMD10% LSOAs, ensuring balance across geographies and regions. Then followed in-depth research consisting of online desk research and interviews with council members and officers to establish the scope of their neighbourhood strategy. Four areas were selected for follow-up interviews to display in more detail the different approaches councils are taking to support disadvantaged wards through neighbourhood initiatives.
The report found that neighbourhood-level initiatives remain a default strategy for many local authorities with some form of neighbourhood working existing in 32 of 34 authorities we were able to contact. While many of these approaches mirror those of the early 2000s neighbourhood management, the report pointed to a growing diversity of approaches to neighbourhood working.
The report was published in October 2024 and presented at the LGA conference.