Town and Parish PB
Neighbourhood councils in both England and Wales have been quick to pick up on the potential of PB to support their roles in the community and obtain greater community buy-in. The relative flexibility of the precept also allows for some innovative PB processes.
Local councils are unique from other forms of public sector for a number of reasons. They aren't statutory, they exist because the community decided it wanted one; they can raise their own precepts, which currently aren't capped; often the councillors are independent of any party affiliation and they are closer than many other public sectors to the communities they serve.
All of which creates perfect conditions for innovative PB. Whilst many local councils have little funding, and varied support from the higher tiers of local government, they are able to take control of various local services, where its deemed appropriate, and they have a much greater connection with their local community than the higher tiers.
There have been experiments with involving citizens in making decisions on what services should be delivered by the local council, which ones that are in danger of being shut down should be taken on, and where there's insufficient funding, voting on whether to increase the precept.
Others have involved a whole range of local service providers to contributing to the pot of money available and the process, to provide a neighbourhood approach to public funding, whether for the community & voluntary sector or for statutory services.
Some case studies are below, as well as a toolkit developed by Rural Action Yorkshire, especially for town and parishes.
Get involved with The People's Budget!
Choose Health in Deptford
PB masterclass: commissioning and budget cycles
