Eve Little, Research Impact and Engagement Manager at the UK Data Service, introduces the new Local communities in data impact theme and shows how its evidence aligns with current UK Government strategies around safety, participation and place.
The new Local communities in data impact theme brings together UK Data Service-enabled research, case studies, blog posts and data resources to explore how national datasets are used to understand and strengthen local communities.
The theme focuses on three connected lenses: place, people and safety. Together, these areas reflect current UK Government priorities aimed at addressing different aspects of community life, such as the Road Safety Strategy, the Pride in Place agenda and the Safer Streets Mission.
By bringing these different perspectives together, the theme highlights how national data can support more joined-up and locally grounded approaches to strengthening communities.
Place: safer and more accessible environments
Published in January 2026, the Department for Transport’s Road Safety Strategy is the first comprehensive national road safety strategy in over a decade. It reflects the theme’s focus on place and safety, exploring how transport infrastructure, public spaces and perceptions of risk shape how people move through and use their communities.
Research and survey data underpin many of the priorities set out in the strategy. The report draws on the National Travel Attitudes Survey (NTAS), available through the UK Data Service, to understand how people perceive safety while travelling in public spaces.
Using the NTAS, the strategy identifies concerns about safety as a major barrier to walking and cycling, particularly for women and children. In response, it highlights measures such as protected cycle routes, safer crossings and improved road design as ways to support more active travel.
Alongside survey data, official statistics provide an important baseline for understanding the scale of harm. The strategy reports that 27,865 people were seriously injured on Great Britain’s roads in 2024, underlining the continued impact of road traffic collisions.
Research featured in the Local communities in data theme highlights the importance of looking beyond official records alone. For example, analysis by Rachel Aldred using the National Travel Survey (NTS) found that self-reported injuries among pedestrians and cyclists may be around five times higher than those recorded in official records.
Together, these examples show how different forms of evidence can help build a more complete understanding of safety within local communities.
People: participation and belonging
The UK Government’s Pride in Place programme represents a significant long-term investment in strengthening communities across the UK. It focuses on trust, civic participation and sense of belonging, closely aligning with the theme’s focus on people and place.
National survey data plays an important role in understanding these experiences. The Community Life Survey (CLS), available through the UK Data Service, is used throughout the Pride in Place Strategy report (PDF) to explore how people feel about their local areas and their ability to shape them.
The findings present a mixed picture. While 61% of CLS respondents report a sense of belonging to their neighbourhood and more than half of adults volunteer at least once a year, other results point to growing disconnection. Nearly one third of respondents say that their area has become a worse place to live over the last two years, while only 23% feel able to influence local decisions.
These insights from the CLS point to an important distinction between feeling part of a community and being able to shape it.
In response, the programme promotes local decision-making through initiatives such as the Neighbourhood Boards, which bring together residents, councils, MPs, businesses and community organisations to shape local priorities collaboratively.
This direction was further reinforced in May 2026 through the UK Government’s announcement of the Neighbourhood Guarantee, which includes new Community Power Pilots designed to bring together councils, community groups and residents to co-design local services and ensure communities have a greater voice in decisions affecting them.
These examples highlight participation as a core part of community life. By bringing this evidence together, the theme shows how national data can be used to better understand how trust, participation and people’s experiences shape stronger local communities.
Safety: safer streets and community life
The UK Government’s Safer Streets Mission brings together all three lenses of the theme – safety, place and people – recognising that safer communities are shaped not only by reducing crime, but by how people experience their neighbourhoods and participate within them.
The mission includes commitments to reduce violence, tackle anti-social behaviour, improve public trust in the policy and criminal justice system, and halve Violence Against Women and Girls within a decade. National surveys not only help to shape these policy priorities, but also evolve in response to them.
Recent developments in the Crime Survey for England and Wales, for example, have strengthened the ways domestic abuse, sexual violence and stalking are measured in response to the Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls priorities. This includes the introduction of a combined measure designed to better reflect the overlapping nature of these experiences.
Connecting place, people and safety
Across these UK Government strategies, a consistent approach emerges: combining different forms of evidence to understand local communities. This includes not only official statistics, but also survey data, research insights and people’s lived experience.
Taken together, these perspectives show that safety cannot be understood in isolation. Experiences of harm are shaped by place. Perceptions of safety are influenced by trust and participation. And effective policy depends on understanding how these factors interact.
The Local communities in data theme brings these different strands together, highlighting how national data can support more informed, locally grounded and inclusive approaches to strengthening communities.
Meet the team
(Left) Finn Dymond-Green (They/Them) is the Director of Impact at the UK Data Service.
(Middle) Eve Little (She/Her) is one of the Impact and Engagement Managers at the UK Data Service.
(Right) Sophie Gawryla (She/Her) is one of the Impact and Engagement Managers at the UK Data Service.
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