Participatory Budgeting gives a voice to more communities
Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a mechanism of local government, which gives local communities a greater say in how public money is spent. CAP's Participatory Budgeting Unit, with Government support, is helping local authorities across the UK to set up PB schemes that give a voice to people living in deprived communities.
There are now successful PB projects and new initiatives in many parts of England:
- Newcastle City Council has recently agreed to devolving 2.25million for young people to decide how to spend it.
- In Manton (Nottinghamshire), due to the success of the original pilot, New Deal for Communities has agreed to continue the PB project with a further 50,000 of funding plus additional funding from the Primary Care Trust for health-related projects.
- Morecambe recently put on a very successful PB grant-giving event, with local people in Poulton, Morecambe deciding on how 20,000 should be spent. A television crew attended and taped the event, and are hoping to show it as part of a programme on channel 4.
- The Fallowfield area of Manchester recently had an exciting PB grant-giving event where local people decided on how 6,000 for environmental projects should be spent.