Can PB be used to decide which services to cut?
Public money is always limited, and hard choices must always have to be made about what services can and can’t be funded. Participatory budgeting improves the exchange of information and dialogue between different viewpoints and when well implemented can help whenever there is particular budgetary pressures. However most public expenditure, once committed, cannot be easily cut due to contractual, social equality or political reasons. International experience has shown that PB is most successful and sustainable when it focuses on investment budgets. It is during commissioning and public investment that new ideas can get picked up. If they are going to continue to participate it is also important that local people see a positive outcome from their engagement. Moving too quickly can also create resistance from service managers or politicians, who have traditionally taken these decisions. That is why the PB Unit is promoting the concept of the 1% budget - a commitment by local authorities to use PB to allow residents to directly decide on just 1% of their annual budget. The PB Unit believes this would be a considerable improvement of the current situation in the UK, where local people have little direct influence over core expenditure.
