Participatory Budgeting
What is Participatory Budgeting (PB)?
The official definition is: “Participatory budgeting directly involves local people in making decisions on the priorities and spending for a defined public budget. This means engaging residents and community groups representative of all parts of the community to discuss and vote on them, as well as giving local people a role in the scrutiny and monitoring of the process.”
PB started in extremely deprived communities in Brazil in the late 1980’s. Since its early development it is estimated that their have been over 500 PB experiences across the globe operating on every continent. The concept is relatively new to the UK and is growing rapidly as a movement. Methods vary greatly and continue to evolve but these are positive differences that take account of local situations.
A common complaint about Local Authorities is that too many decisions on public spending are made by people that do not have the knowledge about the communities they serve. However, the PB approach gives people the power to make informed decisions on how the money can be used to best effect.
Forms of PB
Some of the forms PB projects can take include:
• Awarding of specific grant funds;
• Mainstream Council budgets devolved to local area committees;
• Setting Local Authority wide priorities, agreeing projects and spending around an annual revenue budget-setting process;
• Pooled budgets from partners through the LSP to tackle particular cross-partner themes or Local Area Agreement (LAA) Indicators;
• Using Town or Parish Council precepts; and
• Agreeing wider LAA, Local Strategic Partnership priorities and spending (mainstreaming)
The Benefits of PB
PB is most effective when it is inclusive and can help make a real difference in the relationship between individuals, communities, third sector organisations and local authority officers and elected councillors.
Other benefits include:
• Greater community cohesion, as diverse people come together and share a common experience;
• Better understanding of the complexities of setting public budgets and choosing between competing priorities;
• Real improvements in the way local people and elected councillors and council officers work together;
• Services better tailored to meet local need and improve local resident satisfaction;
• Rejuvenate local democracy and get more people to become active in their communities; and
• Greater transparency in public spending
The above information has been compiled using the UK Government’s PB Unit publication: Participatory Budgeting – Values, Principles &
Standards, September 2008. Web: http://www.participatorybudgeting.org.uk/documents/PBVPS.pdf
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