What is the Pride in Place Programme?
Pride in Place is a government programme which is offering £20m to chosen towns across the UK to be spent over the next 10 years. Canvey Island was selected for the programme in spring 2024.
What is it trying to do?
Pride in Place is trying to bring communities together by putting local people in control of the future of their towns. The money can be used to make everyday changes to improve the lives of people on Canvey and boost the local area for now and the future.
Who does it want to work with?
You! To do this, a Neighbourhood Board was put together with key members of the local community. This autumn the Board have been listening to people across Canvey, including children and young people, and hearing what changes you would like to see and what your hopes are for the future of the island.
Who is your Board?
The Board is made up of people with strong links to the local community and local organisations. Representatives include those from the following:
- Thames Estuary Growth Board (Interim Chair)
- The MP for Castle Point
- Canvey Island Town Council
- Castle Point Borough Council
- Essex County Council
- Essex Police
- Essex Police, Fire and Crime
- Commissioner’s Office
- South Essex Schools Sport Partnerships
- Church of England
- Haredi Jewish Community
- Yellow Door, Canvey Island
- Youth Project
- Castle Point Association of
- Voluntary Services (CAVS)
- NHS South East Essex Alliance
- Estuary Festival CIC
- Local business figures (Monico Leisure Ltd, Inner London Developments (Roscommon) Ltd & PJT Restaurants Ltd
What did you tell us?
Local people were invited to make and write postcards “from the future” imagining the results of the £20m for Canvey. 817 postcards were completed, and the most common themes are shown in the chart below. The top four topics you wanted to see improvements on were:
Access & Transport, Canvey Town Centre, Health & Wellbeing and Youth & Community infrastructure.
What did we do with that information – and so what does the plan look like?
The Board listened to what you told us about your hopes for Canvey and used that information to create a Regeneration Plan. The plan explains to government how the £20m will be spent over the next 10 years and focuses on 10 key project areas based on your priorities.
You can see the full plan online.
What happens next?
The Regeneration Plan was given to government in late November 2025. We are now waiting to hear back from them about our ideas and expect a response in early 2026. The first round of money, which can be used to start delivering projects, is expected to be released in April 2026.
How will we keep speaking with you?
We will be speaking with you in different ways as the programme moves forward. We have a webpage which will be regularly updated with news about projects. We have social media pages and mailing lists through which we will keep letting you know about what is happening.
We also want to keep hearing from you and check that we are on the right track as we move forward. We will be running more engagement events in Canvey in 2026 and we will let you know more about these as soon as we can.