Economic growth alone won't fix Yorkshire's belonging crisis - Kim Samuel

Yorkshire needs secure jobs, affordable homes and investment in places that have waited too long for it. Yet a town can attract investment and still leave its residents feeling unheard. Jobs and transport links can be delivered to a community without being shaped by it.

Economic growth has dominated the news agenda this party conference season, with former business secretary Peter Kyle stating that the government should "put our foot down and get there quicker." That urgency is understandable, but the way we pursue growth, and who gets to shape it, will determine how much it improves people’s lives.

Economic progress can ease financial pressure, but it does not automatically create trust, connection or belonging. Growth figures cannot capture the loss of the local library or pub where someone found company, or a playground where parents no longer feel safe taking their children. These experiences are the moments I hear about when people say they no longer feel they belong in their community.

Our 2026 Belonging Barometer, a survey of more than 10,000 UK adults, captures this belonging crisis. Some 39 per cent of adults feel less connected to Britain than they did in 2020, and 86 per cent say at least one economic factor has made it harder to build connections with others.

Financial security gives people more freedom to participate in community life, but they also need places to meet and opportunities to influence what happens around them.

Across Yorkshire, experiences of belonging vary sharply. The Barometer found that 28 per cent of people in Hull East say they don’t belong, the third highest in Britain. Three of the four constituencies in Britain where people are least likely to spend free time in high street venues are in Yorkshire – two in Hull and one in Sheffield. Yet Sheffield Hallam and York Outer both rank in the top five.

Government policy is beginning to recognise that growth is not enough. The Prime Minister's devolution agenda and the creation of No 10 North show an understanding that change has to be visible in the places where people live – and shaped by the people who live there.

But policy should go further. The Prime Minister's decision to cut business rates for pubs by 20 per cent from next April acknowledges that they are among the last shared spaces in many communities. Yorkshire and the Humber was among the three regions with the biggest net loss of pubs last year, according to tax firm Ryan. The case for a lower rate of value-added tax (VAT) for hospitality, which he supported before taking office, deserves serious consideration in the next Budget.

The Government’s Pride in Place programme promises to invest up to £20m over ten years for each participating neighbourhood.

Local residents must have a say in how that money is spent, particularly in places such as Yorkshire, which is home to four of the ten constituencies in Britain where people are most likely to feel badly represented by their MP.

Belonging depends on giving young people a stake in the future, and a first job is often where it starts. With almost a million people aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training, that first step is out of reach for too many.

Work is where many young people learn habits, confidence and skills, and where they experience being part of a team.

Libraries offer a free place to learn, meet and prepare for it, and protecting them, alongside investing in youth employment, will do as much for belonging as any growth figure.

The Prime Minister has promised to carry power out of Westminster and into "every postcode in the land." That promise will mean little if it stops at the regional level.

Devolution has to bring resources with it and keep travelling to the towns where people live.

Yorkshire's mayors should use their new powers to encourage belonging. There is no point in protecting live music venues and pubs if there is no way for people to get to them.

New public infrastructure, such as bus routes, must connect housing developments and outlying towns to places where people gather.

Belonging is built close to home, through the people we know, the places we share and the chance to contribute. It also depends on power: a voice in decisions about housing, transport, work and the change happening in your local community.

Growth will help ease the cost-of-living crisis, but if we want stronger communities, we need libraries that stay open, bus routes that connect people, and residents with real influence over how investment is spent. Yorkshire's towns have character because people shaped them. The Government should make sure communities still can.

Kim Samuel is the founder of the Belonging Forum.