The national network for neighbourhood improvement is a unique community of practice for local and combined authority officers, dedicated to partnership working, and community-led, place-based regeneration.
The network is being incubated by Local Trust during 2024. It builds on the learnings from local government pioneers, evidence from past regeneration programmes, and the recent experience of the Big Local programme: a first-of-its-kind initiative that puts power, resources and decision-making into the hands of local communities to enable them to transform and improve their lives and areas.
The network exists to share the latest research, foster innovative best and next practice, and support peer-learning and collaboration, in order to advance successful and sustainable approaches to neighbourhood renewal. Its agenda is developed in partnership with its members and an advisory group of local authority chief executives and directors, to ensure it responds to and meets the need of local government.
It seeks to build stronger links between those neighbourhoods most in need of support and resources and local government regeneration practice, by sharing evidence and developing tools to enable investment in the foundational social infrastructure required for communities to thrive and prosper. The network advocates for an asset-based and community-led approach to neighbourhood regeneration, one that builds upon the strengths and resources that already exist in a given neighbourhood, rather than a top-down process, or a one-size-fits-all off-the-shelf programme.
It also builds on the Community Needs Index (CNI) evidence base developed by Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion in partnership with Local Trust, to objectively identify community strengths and needs at the neighbourhood level.