Services · Pride in Place Programme Support
Pride in Place is the biggest investment in deprived neighbourhoods in a generation.
The communities it serves deserve more than a consultation event.
The government has committed up to £5 billion to 284 communities across Great Britain. Neighbourhood Boards now need to evidence deep, inclusive engagement — with everyone, especially those who have never had a say. Sonar was built for exactly this.
Pride in Place is a genuine opportunity to transform some of the UK's most deprived communities. But the funding only works if the engagement does. Sonar gives Neighbourhood Boards two things they actually need: a clear picture of what their neighbourhood requires — and the methodology to act on it.
284
communities receiving Pride in Place funding across Great Britain
£20m
per area over a decade — spent on community priorities, not Whitehall ones
July 2026
deadline for all Neighbourhood Boards to be established
10 years
of delivery — community intelligence must be sustained, not one-off
The Problem
The government is explicit: generic, one-off consultations won't do.
Overnight, local authorities have to establish Neighbourhood Boards made up of ordinary members of the public — residents, local business owners, community activists, faith leaders. People who care deeply about their area, but who have never administered public funding, set strategic priorities, or run a community engagement process at scale.
These boards have to produce a Pride in Place Plan that the government will actually approve. They must show that their Plan is a genuine reflection of what the whole community wants — not just those who turn up to meetings. The government's own guidance is explicit: boards must avoid engagement "dominated by those with the sharpest elbows."
That is a high bar. And most Neighbourhood Boards — new bodies, under-resourced, working to tight timelines — don't have the expertise to clear it. And all of this has to happen fast. Phase 2 areas in particular have less preparation time than Phase 1. The clock is running.
"The communities chosen for Pride in Place are the ones who've been overlooked the longest. High deprivation, weak social infrastructure — and often, very good reasons not to trust the process. They deserve engagement that goes deeper than a drop-in event."
— Paul Valentine, Founder, Sonar Engagement
What We Provide
Two things Neighbourhood Boards actually need. Both done properly.
Sonar has been doing this work in some of the most deprived and complex neighbourhoods in England for over a decade. Our founder Paul Valentine spent 30 years as a police officer — learning how to understand communities that don't show up to meetings, don't fill in surveys, and have good reasons not to trust official processes. That experience is built into everything we do.
Local Needs Analysis (CWaNA™)
We show your Neighbourhood Board what their area actually looks like — not what planners assume it looks like. Using our structured seven-stage methodology, we pull together deprivation data, demographic analysis, socioeconomic context, health, crime, and employment profiles, and combine it with genuine on-the-ground community engagement. The result is a documented, auditable picture of your neighbourhood's real priorities — the evidence base your Pride in Place Plan needs to stand up to government scrutiny.
Board Support & Engagement Methodology
A group of volunteers who've never worked together before, suddenly responsible for spending £20 million over ten years — that's a significant ask. We help Neighbourhood Boards get structured from the start: how to run inclusive engagement, how to prioritise community needs, how to make defensible decisions, and how to build the kind of trust with local residents that makes co-design real rather than performative.
How We Work
From community intelligence to a Pride in Place Plan that holds up.
Map the neighbourhood
Stakeholder identification. Who lives here, who holds influence, which anchor institutions are active, which faith communities and VCSE organisations have genuine reach — and crucially, who has historically been excluded from decision-making in this area.
Build the evidence base
LSOA deprivation data. OCSI datasets. Health, crime, housing, education, and employment profiles. We build the factual picture of the neighbourhood — what the numbers say about its pressures and priorities — before we go and listen.
Go where communities actually are
We don't wait for residents to come to consultation events. We go to where they gather — community cafés, places of worship, school runs, housing association meetings, doorsteps. Especially in the places and with the people that formal processes tend to miss.
Co-design with the Board
Community intelligence becomes community priorities. We work with the Neighbourhood Board to map what residents told us against the eight national Pride in Place themes, identify what to fund and why, and produce a co-designed set of proposals that the whole community can recognise as theirs.
Produce the Pride in Place Plan
A documented, auditable plan built from real community voice — structured to meet MHCLG approval requirements, defensible if questioned, and grounded in the evidence we gathered. Not a plan written in an office. A plan that reflects what the community actually said.
Stay alongside for delivery
Pride in Place runs for ten years. Community needs change. We offer ongoing listening and community intelligence to keep the programme genuinely responsive — not just compliant at year one and drifting thereafter.
Why This Matters
"Imagine you get a load of volunteers together who've never worked together before — and they're supposed to administer £20 million. These neighbourhood boards are going to be ordinary members of the public. They've probably got no experience in the public sector. The first thing they need is to understand what their neighbourhood actually looks like — the demographics, the deprivation, the barriers to employment, health, crime, all of it. And then they need a methodology for getting stuff done. That's exactly what we provide."
— Paul Valentine, Founder, Sonar Engagement — former senior police officer, 30 years of community intelligence work
Who We Work With
Pride in Place involves multiple organisations.
We work across all of them.
Local authorities
As accountable body, you need engagement evidence that's defensible. We produce the auditable trail that protects your position.
Neighbourhood Boards
New, under-resourced, working to government deadlines. We give you the methodology, the evidence base, and the structure to do this properly.
NHS & health organisations
Pride in Place areas are high-demand health catchments. NHS leaders are actively encouraged to join Neighbourhood Boards. We help them engage meaningfully.
VCSE organisations
Community and voluntary groups are at the heart of what Pride in Place is trying to achieve. We identify them, engage them, and connect them to Board decision-making.
Infrastructure contractors
Major works in Pride in Place areas carry social value obligations. Our Local Needs Analysis delivers both: community intelligence and PPN 002 compliance, in one methodology.
Combined authorities
Transport and regeneration investment across Pride in Place areas requires defensible community evidence. We provide it at the scale and rigour commissioners expect.
Key Dates
The timeline is tighter than it looks.
Phase 1 delivery funding released to local authorities. Delivery phase begins.
All Neighbourhood Boards must be fully established. Membership confirmed with MHCLG.
Phase 2 Neighbourhood Boards submit Pride in Place Plans for government approval.
Phase 2 delivery begins. Boards must demonstrate ongoing community responsiveness.
A decade of delivery. Community intelligence cannot be a one-off exercise.
Phase 2 areas: the window is now.
Phase 2 Neighbourhood Boards have less preparation time than Phase 1. The government expects Year 1 funding to be used for community engagement precisely because of the tighter timeline. Boards that don't invest in genuine engagement early will produce Plans that don't hold up — and communities will get less than they were promised. A Local Needs Analysis (CWaNA™) can be scoped and started within weeks of a conversation with us.
Common Questions
Pride in Place FAQs
Ready to talk?
We don't do sales pitches. We have honest conversations about what your area needs and whether we're the right people to help. If we are, we'll tell you. If we're not, we'll point you somewhere better.
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