Pride in Place Programme: Phase 1 place selection methodology note
Published 3 December 2025
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1. Overview of the programme
The Pride in Place Programme (PiPP) is a UK-wide programme providing a 10-year investment to disadvantaged neighbourhoods. There are two phases to the PiPP.
Phase 1 was first launched as a £1.5 billion programme to invest up to £20 million each in 75 areas over the next decade – a long-term strategy to fix the foundations of those places most left behind.
The place selection methodology was developed and carried out under the previous Conservative government named the Long-Term Plan for Towns (LTPT). The government then changed the approach but took the decision to commit to deliver the funding to the 75 locations and renamed the programme as the Plan for Neighbourhoods to reflect the new approach. In September 2025 the programme was reformed and expanded as part of the Pride in Place Strategy.
The initial 75 areas now represent phase 1 of the Pride in Place Programme. See details of the phase 2 selection approach.
The 75 phase 1 places were selected in two parts. An initial 55 places in ‘Part A’ in October 2023, followed by a further 20 places in ‘Part B’ in March 2024.
2. Selection of the initial 55 PiPP phase 1 places
This section sets out the methodology used to select the initial 55 places identified as part of the Pride in Place Programme phase 1 (then called Long-Term Plan for Towns).
Lower tier local authorities were ranked according to their Levelling Up Need separately in England, Scotland and Wales. Local authorities without suitably sized built up areas were removed, and regional caps have been applied to facilitate geographic spread.
The most deprived built up area (BUA) within each of these local authorities was then selected using the rankings of the respective nation IMD (the English Indices of Multiple Deprivation, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, and the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation).
The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities approved the overall methodology. He did not add or remove any local authorities or towns from the process. The rest of this note outlines each of these steps in detail.
Detail on our approach to providing support in Northern Ireland is set out in the further 20 PiPP phase 1 places section.
Step 1: Ranking local authorities within each nation according to Levelling Up Need
The ranking of local authorities by Levelling Up Need was developed in accordance with the Levelling Up White Paper (figure 1.13, page 18) which combines 4 metrics relevant to understanding place performance.
These metrics cover skills, pay, productivity and health. For each metric, the 3 most recent UK-wide statistical releases are averaged to reduce volatility in the data and ensure the outputs are robust.
| Metric | Source | Dates used | Geographic level |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVQ Level 3+ (% of total population) | ONS annual population survey, Nomis | 3-year average (Jan- Dec 2019-21) | Lower-tier Local Authority |
| Healthy Life Expectancy | ONS Health state life expectancy at birth and at age 65 years by local areas, UK | 3-year average* (2016/18-2018/20) | Upper-tier Local Authority** |
| Median Gross Weekly Pay (£) | ONS annual survey of hours and earnings. The equivalent Northern Ireland data can be accessed from NIRSA. | 3 year average (2019-21) | Lower-tier Local Authority |
| Gross Value Added (GVA) per Hour Worked | ONS Sub-regional Productivity: labour productivity indices by local authority district | 3-year average (2018-20) | Lower-tier Local Authority |
*Data released in 3-year intervals and used for 2016-2018, 2017-2019 and 2018-2020.
**Upper tier local authority data used for all component lower tier local authorities as lower tier data does not exist in a consistent fashion. This affects the 24 county council areas in England.
For each metric, all lower tier local authorities across the UK are ranked and those that fall into the bottom quartile are assigned a value of “1”. The number of times each place is in the bottom quartile against each of the 4 metrics is then summed to give a bottom quartile count out of 4.
A priority list of local authorities within each nation is then generated which includes all local authorities in the bottom quartile against 3 or more of the 4 metrics - i.e. those with a count of 3 or 4 in the methodology above.
To complement the quartiles approach, local authorities are scored according to their relative performance against each metric to generate an overall score for Levelling Up Need. We score places from 0 to 1 for each metric using a min-max normalisation technique, which reflects an area’s performance relative to the rest of the UK, and then an average across each of the 4 min-max normalised scores is taken.
Step 2: Excluding local authorities without eligible built-up areas within the population threshold and applying regional caps
To ensure local authorities with appropriately sized places are selected, a population threshold has been applied. Local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales without a BUA or Locality with a population between 20,000 to 100,000 people have been excluded from the list of local authorities.
To apply this threshold, the following data has been used:
- In England, BUAs are matched to local authorities using the ‘LSOA (2021) to Built Up Area to Local Authority District to Region (December 2022) Lookup in England and Wales v2’ table and the population has been taken from the usual resident population estimates by BUA for England and Wales, 2021 dataset.
- In Scotland, localities are matched to local authorities using the City & Town Classification of Output Areas dataset. This dataset has also been used to estimate the population of each Locality.
- In Wales, BUAs are matched to local authorities using the ‘LSOA (2021) to Built Up Area to Local Authority District to Region (December 2022) Lookup in England and Wales v2’ table and the population has been taken from the usual resident population estimates by BUA for England and Wales, 2021 dataset.
To facilitate geographic spread, regional caps have also been applied within each nation:
- In England, a cap of 10 local authorities per ITL1 region has been applied. If an ITL1 region has more than 10 local authorities in the initial list, the lowest scoring local authorities for Levelling Up Need are removed from the list and replaced by local authorities from a different ITL1 region in order of their Levelling Up Need.
- In Scotland, a cap of 3 local authorities per ITL2 region has been applied. If an ITL2 region has more than 3 local authorities in the initial list, then the lowest scoring local authorities for Levelling Up Need are removed and replaced by local authorities from a different ITL2 region in order of their Levelling Up Need.
- In Wales, a cap of 2 local authorities per ITL2 region has been applied. If an ITL2 region has more than 3 local authorities in the initial list, then the lowest scoring local authorities for Levelling Up Need are removed and replaced by local authorities from a different ITL2 region in order of their Levelling Up Need.
In England, the top 44 local authorities based on Levelling Up Need that met the population threshold and regional cap were selected. In Scotland, the top 7 are selected. In Wales, the top 4 are selected.
Step 3: Selecting the most deprived Built-up area within the ranked local authority list
To select the town chosen within each local authority, each built-up area (BUA) with a population between 20,000 and 100,000 within each local authority was ranked by the Index of Multiple Deprivation for each nation, as there is no UK wide Index. The most deprived BUA within each local authority was then selected.
To estimate BUA and locality level deprivation:
- In England, the 2019 Indices of Deprivation has been aggregated to BUA level using IMD ranks for each Lower Super Output Area (LSOA). LSOAs are matched to BUAs using the ‘LSOA (2021) to Built Up Area to Local Authority District to Region (December 2022) Lookup in England and Wales v2’ table. The IMD rank of all the corresponding LSOAs in each BUA have been averaged, using a simple mean. Where a LSOA boundary has been updated since 2011, the IMD rank for the most appropriate LSOA as of 2011 has been used for the 2021 LSOA.
- In Wales, the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019 has been aggregated to BUA level using IMD ranks for each LSOA. LSOAs have been matched to BUAs using the ‘LSOA (2021) to Built Up Area to Local Authority District to Region (December 2022) Lookup in England and Wales v2’ table. The IMD rank of all the corresponding LSOAs in each BUA have been averaged, using a simple mean. Where an LSOA boundary has been updated since 2011, the IMD rank for the most appropriate LSOA as of 2011 has been used for the 2021 LSOA.
- In Scotland, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation has been aggregated to BUA level using IMD ranks for each Data Zone (DZ). The IMD rank of all the corresponding DZ in each Locality have been averaged, using a simple mean. To match each DZ to a Locality, the City & Town Classification of Output Areas dataset has been used.
3. Selection of a further 20 PiPP phase 1 places
This extension to PiPP phase 1 (then titled the Long-Term Plan for Towns - LTPT) adds a further 20 towns across the UK to the programme. 14 towns in England, 3 in Scotland, 1 in Wales and 2 in Northern Ireland. This section sets out the method for identifying these.
3.1 England
The methodology used to select the initial list of places in England in October 2023 has been extended, with two changes:
1. The measures of Levelling Up Need have been updated with the most recent data. These metrics can be seen below.
Metrics used to rank local authorities in England
| Metric | Source | Dates used | Geographic level |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVQ Level 3+ (% of total population) | ONS annual population survey, Nomis | 3-year average (Jan- Dec 2019-21) | Lower-tier Local Authority |
| Healthy Life Expectancy | ONS Health state life expectancy at birth and at age 65 years by local areas, UK | 3-year average* (2016/18-2018/20) | Upper-tier Local Authority** |
| Median Gross Weekly Pay (£) | ONS annual survey of hours and earnings. The equivalent Northern Ireland data can be accessed from NISRA | 3 year average (2021-23) | Lower-tier Local Authority |
| Gross Value Added (GVA) per Hour Worked | ONS Sub-regional Productivity: labour productivity indices by local authority district | 3-year average (2019-21) | Lower-tier Local Authority |
* Data released in 3-year intervals and used for 2016-2018, 2017-2019 and 2018-2020.
** Upper tier local authority data used for all component lower tier local authorities as lower tier data does not exist in a consistent fashion.
2. The regional cap set previously at a maximum of 10 places per ITL1 region has been increased to 13, in proportion to the increase in the number of towns. This allows for additional places to be selected in each region, while facilitating geographic spread.
3.2 Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Local authorities are ranked within Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on a wider set of metrics than in England, reflecting the metrics used for the place selection of Levelling Up Partnerships in Scotland as announced in November 2023.
In Scotland and Wales, local authorities are ranked across 6 metrics – skills, pay, productivity and healthy life expectancy (as in England), as well as historic population changes and access to services deprivation.
In Northern Ireland, this is based on an average of the normalised scores of all these metrics except for skills, as there is no subnational data available. We score local authorities from 0 to 1 for each metric using a min-max normalisation, a statistical technique which reflects an area’s performance relative to other areas in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively, and then sum across each of the min-max normalised scores.
These metrics can be seen below for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Metrics used to rank local authorities in Scotland
| Metric | Source | Dates used | Geographic level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Above SCFQ4 (% of total population) | Scotland’s Labour Market: People, Places and Regions* | 3-year average (Jan- Dec 2019-21) | Local Authority |
| Healthy Life Expectancy | National Records of Scotland: Healthy Life Expectancy in Scotland, 2017/19-2019/21** | 3-year average (2017/19-2019/21) | Local Authority |
| Median Gross Weekly Pay (£) | ONS annual survey of hours and earnings. The equivalent Northern Ireland data can be accessed from NISRA. | 3 year average (2021-23) | Local Authority |
| Gross Value Added (GVA) per Hour Worked | ONS Sub-regional Productivity: labour productivity indices by local authority district | 3-year average (2019-21) | Local Authority |
| Percentage change in working age population (aged 16-64) | NRS Population Estimates Time Series Data | 2011 to 2021 | Local Authority |
| The proportion of data zones among the 20% most “access to services” deprived data zones. | Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation | 2020 | Local Authority |
* This link includes published data for 2019 and 2020 only. Data for 2021 is held internally by Scottish Government.
** Healthy Life Expectancy data is released in 3-year intervals. Scottish data is available for 2017-2019, 2018-2020 and 2019-2021 (one year ahead of UK-wide data used in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland). This data is released at upper-tier local authority level for England and Wales and council area for Scotland as produced by the National Records of Scotland (NRS). This is consistent with council areas forming the single tier of local government in Scotland. Had the Office for National Statistics data source been used, in line with the data source used for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it would result in the same towns being selected in Scotland.
Metrics used to rank local authorities in Wales
| Metric | Source | Dates used | Geographic level |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVQ Level 3+ (% of total population) | ONS annual population survey, Nomis | 3-year average (Jan- Dec 2019-21) | Local Authority |
| Healthy Life Expectancy | ONS Health state life expectancy at birth and at age 65 years by local areas, UK | 3-year average* (2016/18-2018/20) | Local Authority |
| Median Gross Weekly Pay (£) | ONS annual survey of hours and earnings. The equivalent Northern Ireland data can be accessed from NISRA. | 3 year average (2021-23) | Local Authority |
| Gross Value Added (GVA) per Hour Worked | ONS Sub-regional Productivity: labour productivity indices by local authority district | 3-year average (2019-21) | Local Authority |
| Percentage change in working age population (aged 16-64) | StatsWales Population estimates by local authority, region and age | 2011 to 2021 | Local Authority |
| The proportion of lower super output areas among the 20% most “access to services” deprived data zones. | Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation | 2019 | Local Authority |
* Data released in 3-year intervals and used for 2016-2018, 2017-2019 and 2018-2020.
Metrics used to estimate levelling up need in Northern Ireland
| Metric | Source | Dates used | Geographic level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthy Life Expectancy | ONS Health state life expectancy at birth and at age 65 years by local areas, UK | 3-year average* (2016/18-2018/20) | Local Authority |
| Median Gross Weekly Pay (£) | ONS annual survey of hours and earnings. The equivalent Northern Ireland data can be accessed from NISRA. | 3 year average (2021-23) | Local Authority |
| Gross Value Added (GVA) per Hour Worked | ONS Sub-regional Productivity: labour productivity indices by local authority district | 3-year average (2019-21) | Local Authority |
| Percentage change in working age population (aged 16-64) | NISRA Rebased Mid-Year Population Estimates for Northern Ireland | 2011 to 2021 | Local Authority |
| The proportion of super output areas among the 20% most “access to services” deprived data zones. | Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure | 2017 | Local Authority |
* Data released in 3-year intervals and used for 2016-2018, 2017-2019 and 2018-2020.
The following process is then used to identify local authorities and constituent towns in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Step 1: selecting local authorities
1. To maximise regional spread of the programme, we identify the highest-ranking local authority in each ITL2 region that currently has no towns in the LTPT programme. The highest-ranking local authority amongst these is selected until either all ITL2 regions have a town selected, or the total number of towns for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is reached.
2. To maximise the geographic spread of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ major levelling up funds, local authorities that have not received any funding from recent major levelling up programmes (Levelling Up Fund, Freeports and Green Freeports, Investment Zones and Levelling Up Partnerships) are then identified. The highest ranking amongst these are selected until either there are none remaining or the total number of towns for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is reached.
3. The remaining local authorities that do not already have a town in the LTPT, but that do have a town with a population between 20,000 and 100,000 are considered, and the top ranking of these are selected until the total number of towns for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is reached.
Step 2: selecting towns within selected local authorities
Where a local authority has more than one town with a population between 20,000 and 100,000, the most deprived town based on the relevant IMD is selected.
Where a selected local authority does not have a town with a population between 20,000 and 100,000, the town whose population is closest to the range is selected.
4. Place selection
4.1 Initial 55 PiPP phase 1 place selection
| ITL1/2 Region | Local authority | Town/place* |
|---|---|---|
| East Midlands | Mansfield | Mansfield |
| East Midlands | Boston | Boston |
| East Midlands | Bassetlaw | Worksop |
| East Midlands | East Lindsey | Skegness |
| East Midlands | Newark and Sherwood | Newark-on-Trent |
| East Midlands | Chesterfield | Chesterfield |
| East Midlands | Nottingham | Clifton (Nottingham) |
| East Midlands | South Holland | Spalding |
| East Midlands | Ashfield | Kirkby-in-Ashfield |
| East of England | Tendring | Clacton-on-Sea |
| East of England | Great Yarmouth | Great Yarmouth |
| North East | Redcar and Cleveland | Eston |
| North East | South Tyneside | Jarrow |
| North East | Sunderland | Washington |
| North East | Northumberland | Blyth (Northumberland) |
| North East | Hartlepool | Hartlepool |
| North East | County Durham | Spennymoor |
| North West | Blackburn with Darwen | Darwen |
| North West | Oldham | Chadderton |
| North West | Rochdale | Heywood |
| North West | Tameside | Ashton-under-Lyne |
| North West | Hyndburn | Accrington |
| North West | Wigan | Leigh (Wigan) |
| North West | Bolton | Farnworth |
| North West | Pendle | Nelson (Pendle) |
| North West | Knowsley | Kirkby |
| North West | Burnley | Burnley |
| South East | Hastings | Hastings |
| South East | Rother | Bexhill-on-Sea |
| South East | Isle of Wight | Ryde |
| South West | Torbay | Torquay |
| West Midlands | Sandwell | Smethwick |
| West Midlands | Walsall | Darlaston |
| West Midlands | Wolverhampton | Bilston (Wolverhampton) |
| West Midlands | Dudley | Dudley (Dudley) |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | North East Lincolnshire | Grimsby |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | Wakefield | Castleford |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | Doncaster | Doncaster |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | Rotherham | Rotherham |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | Barnsley | Barnsley |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | North Lincolnshire | Scunthorpe |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | Bradford | Keighley |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | Kirklees | Dewsbury |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | North Yorkshire** | Scarborough |
| West Wales and The Valleys | Merthyr Tydfil | Merthyr Tydfil |
| West Wales and The Valleys | Torfaen | Cwmbrân |
| East Wales | Wrexham | Wrexham |
| East Wales | Vale of Glamorgan | Barry (Vale of Glamorgan) |
| West Central Scotland | Inverclyde | Greenock |
| Southern Scotland | North Ayrshire | Irvine |
| Southern Scotland | East Ayrshire | Kilmarnock |
| West Central Scotland | North Lanarkshire | Coatbridge |
| West Central Scotland | West Dunbartonshire | Clydebank |
| Southern Scotland | Dumfries and Galloway | Dumfries |
| Highlands & Islands | Moray | Elgin |
* There is no statistical definition of a city. Some of the selected places have city status but they have been identified on the basis of deprivation and they have a population size of 20,000 to 100,000.
** Due to data availability Local Authority Levelling Up need was calculated based on local government boundaries as of 2022. Scarborough was the identified local authority which was abolished and the new North Yorkshire Council was established on 1 April 2023.
4.2 Further 20 PiPP phase 1 place selection
| ITL1/ITL2 region | Local Authority | Town/City |
|---|---|---|
| West Midlands | Birmingham | Royal Sutton Coldfield |
| North East | Darlington | Darlington |
| North West | Halton | Runcorn |
| East | Castle Point | Canvey Island |
| East | Breckland | Thetford |
| East | King’s Lynn and West Norfolk | King’s Lynn |
| South East | Thanet | Ramsgate |
| South East | Eastbourne | Eastbourne |
| East | Harlow | Harlow |
| North West | St. Helens | Newton-le-Willows |
| North West | Rossendale | Rawtenstall |
| East | Fenland | Wisbech |
| East Midlands | Gedling | Carlton |
| West Midlands | Nuneaton and Bedworth | Bedworth |
| Eastern Scotland | Angus | Arbroath |
| North Eastern Scotland | Aberdeenshire | Peterhead |
| Highlands and Islands | Orkney Islands | Kirkwall |
| West Wales and The Valleys | Denbighshire | Rhyl |
| Northern Ireland | Derry City & Strabane | Derry~Londonderry |
| Northern Ireland | Causeway Coast & Glens | Coleraine |