This week though, it was announced that a major investment into deprived urban areas is being expanded, through the government’s Pride in Place scheme. Investment in town centres has been sorely lacking for too long, while criticism of previous regeneration funding has often focused on decisions being imposed without meaningful input from local residents. Youth clubs that have been abandoned, shops boarded up, high streets decimated. “I have this very strong sense that wherever you go, people have real pride in their own place and ambition,” Starmer told Positive News. Some Pride in Place projects are already showing how this devolved decision-making works in practice.