Published: March 10, 2026
Belong welcomes the government’s new Social Cohesion Action Plan released yesterday (Mon, 9 March 2026), Protecting What Matters: Towards a more confident, cohesive and resilient United Kingdom, which aims to build stronger communities and root out division across the UK at a time of global insecurity, and rising hate crime and extremism.
The plan sets out a vision for strengthening social cohesion through three pillars:
- Confident Communities: Helping people feel proud of where they live, safe in their local area, and connected to one another.
- Cohesive Communities: Supporting people from different backgrounds to mix, understand each other, and share common values.
- Resilient Communities: Protecting people from extremism, hate and online harms that can divide society.
These sit alongside a wider set of measures focused on tackling extremism, strengthening integration and promoting shared values across communities.
Commenting on the publication, Kelly Fowler, Belong CEO, said:
“Strengthening social cohesion must be a national priority – an everybody, everywhere priority. The cross-government plan is welcome as it starts to lay the foundations and address an issue that successive governments have failed to tackle over many years.
Local authorities and civil society organisations across the UK are already playing their role to bring people together across difference and build connection and cohesion, often in extremely challenging circumstances. This plan recognises that work and makes important commitments to strengthen their hand, and Belong will continue playing our role to support delivery.”
Belong has long advocated for the implementation of a robust national framework for measuring social cohesion in the UK, and it’s encouraging to see this reflected in the Action Plan. In our Rapid Review on Measuring Social Cohesion (published as a background paper to the Khan Review on Threats to Social Cohesion and Democratic Resilience) we called for a comprehensive national framework so that the state of cohesion can be understood at both national and local levels, and this was part of a key recommendation in our After the Riots report co-authored with British Future.
The Action Plan also recognises the importance of supporting places to respond to tensions and strengthen relationships between communities – work that local authorities and community partners are already leading in towns and cities across the UK. It also highlights the need to tackle extremism and division, strengthen integration, and create opportunities for people from different backgrounds to connect with one another, including through the commitment to publish an annual State of Extremism report.
Alongside national action, the strategy emphasises the crucial role of local leadership and community partnerships in strengthening cohesion. Belong’s place-based work has shown that many of the most effective responses to division and tension are developed locally, drawing on the experience and relationships of councils, civil society organisations and community leaders.
We are also pleased to see the government outline its commitment to working with Belong and the Local Government Association (LGA) in this Action Plan to embed shared guidance on social cohesion, helping local authorities strengthen their approach to cohesion and respond to emerging challenges.
This reflects the work already underway through Common Ground: Building Cohesive Communities, the national guidance developed by Belong and the LGA to support local authorities navigating the complex realities of cohesion work on the ground.
Belong looks forward to continuing to work with government, local authorities and partners across civil society to support the delivery of the Action Plan and strengthen social cohesion in communities across the UK.