This week, the Government announced its Plan for Neighbourhoods, a £1.5 billion, decade-long neighbourhood regeneration programme for 75 communities in the UK. The Plan is a successor to the Long-Term Plan for Towns, which Labour inherited from the previous government. Angela Rayner says the new approach aims to ‘draw a line' under the levelling up agenda of her predecessors. Instead, it looks back to New Labour's New Deal for Communities for inspiration. 

A few years ago, I joined colleagues on a visit to Braunstone in Leicester as part of Power to Change's work with the community there. Spotting a plaque on a wall, someone in our group lamented that such commemorations are often the last visible remnants of regeneration initiatives. While I'm sure this is sadly true for some places across the country, it's not the case in Braunstone. The plaque in question recognises the New Deal for Communities and the £49.5 million invested in a ten-year regeneration programme for the Braunstone Estate.