Government enlists church group to raise public participation in budgets

Church Action on Poverty (CAP) has welcomed the announcement from Communities Secretary Hazel Blears of plans to give local communities a greater say in what council money is spent on.

CAP has been commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government to expand its Participatory Budgeting Unit across all English local authorities by 2012 as part of Blears' plans to set up 'community kitties' - council funds to be invested in the areas that members of the local community feel are most urgent.

The charity's Participatory Budgeting Unit is to play a key role in delivering the 12 new local authority pilots in participatory budgeting.

The roll out of the unit is part of the Government's Community Empowerment Plan, a mechanism for implementing Government guidance on local area agreements which have been allocated £5bn to be spent according to local priorities.

The PB Unit will offer advice and technical support to authorities and community organisations wanting to be involved in participatory budgeting.

Director of the PB Unit, Mark Waters, said: "Participatory Budgeting is key to revitalising local democracy. We are delighted that local authorities across the country are keen to embrace this development in citizen participation.

"Enabling people to have a direct say in how public funds are spent can dramatically increase levels of participation, even in areas where so called 'voter apathy' are at their highest.

"What is most encouraging is to see how people vote for what is best for their community rather than simply for their own individual preferences," he said.