The power of place-based investment
It feels logical that investing locally can unlock better social and environmental outcomes — because both challenges and opportunities play out differently in every place. But now research is increasingly backing up how much of a difference place-based investing can make, and how our councils play a central role in delivering it.
Place-based investing can accelerate local climate action
Taking effective climate action requires solutions that work on the ground: local housing stock, local transport needs, local energy infrastructure, and local supply chains.
Research explored through Innovate UK and PwC highlights how place-based action can help unlock investment, build stronger project pipelines, and align partners in a way that’s harder to achieve through national, one-size-fits-all programmes.
The takeaway is clear: local strategies can help turn climate ambition into delivery more effectively than national interventions, amplifying the positive impact of every pound invested over three times. And our councils are central to making sure those plans are translated into real positive action on the ground.
Local decisions can align investment to real outcomes
Place-based outcomes often don’t sit neatly inside national policy silos. That's because the community services we all rely on are experienced together, as a system: homes affect health, transport affects jobs, local services shape opportunity, and so on.
Evidence on “place-based budgets” argues that investment becomes more effective when spending can be understood and coordinated within a local area — so it is shaped around what a place actually needs, rather than around disconnected departmental priorities.
In other words: national government can enable action, but local government is often best positioned to decide specifically how money is invested to deliver the best results.
Social infrastructure investment strengthens communities over time
Place-based investing is also about the foundations that make communities work. Councils, who are the bedrocks of our communities, have thousands of responsibilities to maintain and deliver things that make our places tick. And new research into “social infrastructure” shows how investment into seemingly more intangible things - like community spaces and encouraging local networks - can generate significant social and economic value.
These are the building blocks of stronger places: connection, participation and resilience. Crucially, these benefits can’t be created purely through national programmes. They rely on our local government, local relationships, trusted organisations, and investments designed around how each place actually functions.
Investing in place helps wealth stay and grow locally
Local economies become stronger when more value stays within them. Place-based approaches show how investment and spending can be structured to keep wealth circulating locally. This approach supports inclusive growth: creating jobs, strengthening local business capacity, and reducing leakage of money out of communities.
Place-based impact investing is increasingly part of this story too. UK investors and institutions are exploring how money can deliver measurable local benefits alongside financial returns — supporting both resilience and long-term outcomes in the places that need investment most.
Our approach to place based investing
We believe the UK is facing intersecting pressures: rising demand on public services, regional inequalities, all while the need for long-term investment in green and social infrastructure grows.
Place-based investing is one of the clearest ways to respond — because it builds long-term capacity within places rather than treating all these outcomes as isolated problems. Our municipal investments ensure that your money is truly connected to the places people live — with projects delivered by councils who understand the unique needs of their places.