No national capacity institution for neighbourhood governance and resident leadership

From April 2026, ~379 Pride in Place neighbourhood boards begin spending up to £20m each, and the 2026 Act obliges councils to establish neighbourhood governance arrangements, but the infrastructure that trained resident leaders is disappearing. Local Trust (whose Community Leadership Academy supported leaders across 150 Big Local areas and helped mobilise 6,000+ first-time volunteers) winds down in 2026; the government's community organiser training programmes ended years ago; Community Organisers Ltd's academy is small; Locality supports organisations rather than resident boards. JRF has already flagged capacity gaps as the programme's key risk. No body is charged with training, peer networks, or governance support for thousands of new resident decision-makers.

Big Local's core lesson is that resident-led funding works only with long-term capacity support and conflict-resolution help. Without a successor institution, Pride in Place boards in the most deprived neighbourhoods, many with no governance experience, are the likeliest point of failure for a £5bn, ten-year programme.

A National Neighbourhood Academy: a 10-year funded institution (MHCLG + National Lottery + foundations) providing training, accreditation, peer networks and troubleshooting for resident board members and neighbourhood committees, explicitly inheriting Local Trust's Community Leadership Academy methods and Big Local evidence base.

// Build now: First artefact: foundation-funded academy cohort inheriting Local Trust's Community Leadership Academy curriculum and Big Local evidence base.

Some 379 boards already spend up to £20m each while the institution that trained resident leaders winds down this year, leaving a £5bn programme's likeliest failure point unsupported.