'Bring back the sense of community': Hull residents react to Pride in Place fund to boost UK high streets

Under the scheme, communities will also be given help to save pubs and libraries from closure and encourage councils to block "fake" barbers, as well as "unwanted" betting and vape shops.

The money will be targeted at improvements backed by the local community and could include projects to tackle littering and graffiti or building a new sports ground.

In Hull and East Yorkshire, six areas are each getting up to £20m in Government funding to spend over the next 10 years.

This includes the historic heart of Hull's fishing community – Hessle Road. While the pride and spirit remain among those living here, signs of urban decay have set in. Boarded-up shops and a number of betting, barber, gambling shops and takeaways line the street where trawlermen and their families used to live.

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GB News visited Hessle Road to speak to residents there about what they would like to see the money spent on and to ask how the high street has changed.

Tom said he believes that the high street is "well and truly dying" due to the internet but welcomed the investment for Hessle Road and said: "There used to be people on Hessle Road all the time, and a great sense of community.

"You'd see people stopping on the street, having a chat, but all that's gone now. It's not Hessle Road anymore and they should be putting the money here to bring people back on to the [high] street."

Sean echoed Tom's sentiments and also wants to see investment in street lighting along Hessle Road and for the area to have a market.

He said: "I've worked down here for 42 years and it has changed. When I was a lad you couldn't walk down here because my mam would stop every 3ft to talk to somebody. That's how it was then, it's not like that now, it's a shame."

Roseline has lived on Hessle Road all her life and says she loves the area, but thinks there are too many vape shops and barber shops and added: "If you have a look all the way down, you see a load of empty shops. People are disappearing, the shops are closing, they're getting too expensive. It's going down each time."

Anthony told GB News that the money should be spent to improve community inclusion and to clean the area.

He said: "It's got a heritage, one jewellery shop here has been open for 150 years, but the area has changed.

"I don't think it's as bad as some towns and cities – you still have got your local shops but there is definitely a decline and a separation between different peoples and religions."

Tony has lived in the area for 22 years and told GB News he thinks it has gone "downhill". He added: "Now it's just dead, there's no people about. We need investment that can attract people in, now it's attracting people out and that's what we don't need on Hessle Road."

Gary often visits Hessle Road and makes a 40-minute round trip there weekly from his home in Bransholme to buy produce from a fishmonger, as it is one of the last left in the area. He added: "What we had here, it's all gone, the lot."

The Pride in Place fund represents a "huge investment", according to Sir Keir Starmer, who added that it represented and that those who "know their communities best" would decide how the money would be spent.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “For too long, people have watched their towns and streets decline – powerless to stop boarded-up shops and neglected parks. That ends now.

“We’re investing in the UK’s future, by backing the true patriots that build our communities up in neighbourhoods across every corner of the country. Because it’s people who bring pride, hope and life to our communities.

“This is a huge investment, but what matters most is who decides how it’s spent: the neighbours, volunteers and parents who know their communities best – the people with real skin in the game.

“We’re choosing renewal over decline, unity over division. This is our Plan for Change in action – giving power and pride back to the people who make Britain great.”

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed said:
“Building pride in place starts with people, not politics. Local people know what they want to see in their neighbourhoods – and they don’t need Government to dictate it.

“This plan will spark a historic grassroots movement that will restore local people’s power, boost national pride and help people get on in life across the UK as part of our Plan for Change.”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves said: "We’re giving local people the power to transform their hometowns. Giving them more control of how money is spent where they live so that together we can invest in Britain’s renewal and build an economy that rewards working people.

“This £5 billion investment doesn't just reverse decades of underinvestment in our public infrastructure – it cuts through the bureaucracy by giving local people the power to deliver the change they want to see."

The announcement comes as part of Labour's attempt to tackle the electoral threat posed to them by the rising popularity of Reform UK, which some in Government believe is partly driven by a loss of pride in local areas.

The locations were selected based on a ranking of neighbourhoods, using the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and Community Needs Index. The money includes spending announced earlier this year, which saw £1.5bn pledged to 75 of the "most deprived" areas in the UK.

It is all part of the Government’s Plan for Change, a decade-long mission to back the people who make their communities thrive. The Government says it sits alongside wider work to deliver cleaner, safer streets, create opportunities on every doorstep, and build the homes, roads and GP surgeries people need to thrive.