Community budgets piloted in 14 areas

Published by Julien Tremblin for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Local Government

The Communities Secretary has named the 14 areas that have been selected to pioneer new Community Budgets that aim to save millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.

The move, hailed as a “funding revolution” by Eric Pickles, will let councils, boroughs or neighbourhoods team up with all public services in their area to combine resources into a single locally coordinated “pool and save pot”.

In other words, it aims to give local authorities better control over their budget whilst saving Government cash.

Early research by CLG is said to have shown that a saving of as little as 2 percent would equate to over £1bn saved. It claims that this new approach to funding has the potential to save up to twenty per cent in some areas.

The CLG claims the Community budgets have the power to “create local growth and reduce dependency on the state” while allowing “large swathes of red tape” to be slashed.

The four main areas selected to experiment the Community budgets are:

• Cheshire West and Chester will look at how to pool a single budget of between £3-4bn from over 150 local services;
• Greater Manchester aims to use joined up local investment to reduce levels of dependency and to help create 50,000 jobs in the next four years;
• West London will focus on skills and training for over 16s, speeding up family courts, and curbing youth violence and anti-social behaviour;
• Essex will pull together a single set of objectives for the £10.4 billion they spend on public services so it is used more effectively and efficiently.

Eric Pickles said: "We can no longer afford the luxury which left public investment idling to no purpose. We need a gear change that makes 'silo control' obsolete and starts a local service revolution that puts people at the heart of spending decisions and saves money.

"We're setting up more Community Budgets than originally intended -these 'pool and save' pioneers can bring about truly local services with one big local cheque that knocks out bureaucratic processes everywhere and upends Whitehall's monopoly over public money that's hemmed in frontline workers for decades."

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: "The government is overseeing a fundamental shift in the way Whitehall works - putting power firmly in the hands of local people.

"Community budgets will give professionals the clout to control how money is spent in their communities.

"They will put local authorities in the driving seat to deliver better services, cut red tape and save millions of pounds of taxpayers' money."

Ten 'neighbourhood level' areas have also been selected to develop smaller-scale Community Budgets that will give residents a direct say over the services they want and use.

They are: Cowgate, Kenton Bar and Montague in Newcastle; White City, Kingston, Poplar, Queens Park in London; Ilfracombe in North Devon; Bradford Trident; Sherwood in Tunbridge Wells; Haverhill; and Castle Vale, Shard End and Balsall Heath in Birmingham.