Amplifying the voices of neighbourhoods

Local Trust’s chair David Warner celebrates the launch of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods (ICON) and explains why a focus on neighbourhoods would ensure change and opportunity for the communities that need it most.

The pressures facing our neighbourhoods are greater than ever before. A tough economic climate forcing public finances to be squeezed ever-tighter, has followed swiftly on the heels of a decade where communities have been faced with multiple crises – across health, the cost of living and the environment. 

This calls for new, practical and evidence-based solutions, particularly in neighbourhoods which are severely deprived and sometimes described as having been ‘left behind’. Places that have suffered the bulk of recent challenges are long overdue opportunities for a better future.

A spotlight on long-term change for communities 

As chair of Local Trust, I am delighted to support the launch of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, which will provide the first step in spotlighting these communities and identifying proposals to effect long-term change for the people who call them home.

For more than a decade, Local Trust has invested in deprived neighbourhoods across England, delivering the Big Local programme. During this time, we have seen incredible examples of what can be achieved when you empower local people to improve their neighbourhoods based on their expert understanding of local circumstances and their own ambitions for the future.   

The Commission, launched last week, will bring together an evidence base for a government focus on the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, with the aim of providing opportunity to all regardless of where they live, work or grow up.  

While the work of the Commission will be fully independent, Local Trust hopes to contribute our learning and experience from across 150 Big Local areas, which shows the power and potential of local people when they are offered appropriate support and investment.  

A hyper-local approach

The launch of the new Commission comes at a time when neighbourhoods have dropped off the radar in debate on how to make sure that everyone has access to what they need to get on and achieve their potential.

Despite this, inequalities within regions, not just between them, are becoming more pronounced than ever before. Research shows that some of England’s poorest communities sit alongside areas of great affluence, yet they are being overlooked by current policies aimed at larger geographies such as towns, cities or entire regions.

Many of the governments’ most pressing challenges are rooted in the most deprived neighbourhoods. By focusing on a hyper-local approach to policy, the Commission will be able to make the case and gather the evidence for a new focus on neighbourhoods, as a means to encourage growth, address health inequalities, reduce crime, and achieve a fair transition to net zero.  

Listening to those with lived experience

As an independent body, chaired by Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top and supported by a small, cross-party group of experts, practitioners and others with a keen interest in neighbourhood issues, the Commission will build on existing research, generate new insights and propose concrete actions to improve the lives and prospects of people living in the most deprived areas.  

Commissioners will be supported by an academic panel, a lived experience panel and influential representative groups drawn from the community and voluntary, as well as funding and philanthropic, sectors.  

I hope others from diverse backgrounds and fields, particularly volunteers, practitioners and organisations with direct experience of working within and alongside communities, will also support the work through contributing evidence and expertise to inform the Commission’s findings and subsequent proposals.  

This will enable the Commission to be shaped by a range of voices and perspectives – from those in policymaking and social research to, crucially, people with lived experience of neighbourhood deprivation and its impacts.  

Building a legacy

As we approach the end of the Big Local programme in 2026, I am pleased that the Commission will contribute to Local Trust’s legacy, harnessing learning gathered during the initiative to inform and support the next steps in neighbourhood regeneration in England.

Last week’s launch marked an exciting first step in the development of a new wave of neighbourhood policy and practice, and I wish Baroness Armstrong and the expert group of Commissioners all the best with this first phase of work.

Read more about the Commission, and find details on submitting evidence on the ICON website.