Community power works best when it comes with community intelligence
The government’s Pride in Place programme is a significant step. For years, communities have watched decisions about their high streets get made elsewhere. Now, local people will be able to challenge boarded-up shops, save derelict pubs, block unwanted developments, and shape how money gets spent on their places. If delivered well, it could mark the largest transfer of power from central government to communities in modern history.
That ambition is welcome. But empowerment works best when it comes with insight. Communities know their places better than anyone – they know which streets feel quiet, which pubs are struggling, which parts of town have changed. The question is whether that knowledge gets backed by the kind of evidence that turns local passion into local authority.
Data does not replace local knowledge – it amplifies it
A community board that knows its high street is struggling is starting from the right place. But “it feels quieter than it used to” is not quite the same as knowing which streets are losing visitors and which have held steady, or that dwell time has dropped in one quarter while rising in another, or that the catchment has shifted because of a new transport link.
That is the difference between knowing something is wrong and knowing where to focus. When a community board can see that a Thursday market trial increased dwell time and repeat visits, they are not hoping the intervention worked – they know it did. When they can show a funder that visitor spend has grown since a specific change was made, they are making their case on evidence, not instinct. Data gives community knowledge teeth.
Measuring what works is how this programme succeeds
The track record of regeneration programmes is mixed, and not usually because the people running them lacked commitment. The ones that delivered lasting results were the ones that could measure progress – a rise in footfall after a market event, reduced vacancy rates, more families spending time in town centres. Visible, measurable change is what builds confidence that a programme is working, both for the community and for the funders backing it.
Pride in Place is designed to put decision-making closer to the ground. That is the right instinct. But for community boards to make the most of these new powers, they need to know how their high streets are actually performing – where activity is rising or declining, what kinds of visitors are coming, and which interventions are driving real change. When you combine the passion of local people with the clarity of evidence, you get decisions that stick.
The framework is in place – the evidence layer is what makes it work
The programme’s ambition is right and the transfer of power is overdue. What will determine whether it delivers is whether communities get access to the intelligence they need to use that power well – visitor movement data, spend patterns, catchment analysis, and the ability to track whether things are actually improving.
People do not just want to feel heard. They want to see the results of their voice in action. Evidence-led location management is how that happens.
Place Informatics works with Town Centres, BIDs, Local Authorities, and community organisations across the UK to provide the location intelligence that evidence-based decision-making requires – footfall, visitor movement, spend analytics, catchment analysis, and demographic insight through Place360. If you are involved in Pride in Place delivery or community-led regeneration and want to understand what the data says about your area, we’d welcome the conversation.
Place Informatics provides location analytics, footfall intelligence, and behavioural insights for UK Town Centres, BIDs, Local Authorities, National Parks, and Tourism destinations.