Your Local Budget

Unlocking the potential of participatory budgeting

Download the Your Local Budget discussion paper (PDF 0.38Mb)

From its beginnings in Porto Alegre, Brazil, participatory budgeting has developed as a process for shared decision-making between citizens and the state. It enables communities to work with budget holders to define local priorities, identify available resources and allocate these resources accordingly.

This discussion paper sets out our ambition for participatory budgeting – people and their public representatives sharing the choices facing us today in a way that releases innovation. Recognising that some local authorities are already pushing participatory budgeting to the next level, it outlines NESTA’s and the Big Society Network’s Your Local Budget programme to support leading local authorities and to generate insights about the potential of participatory budgeting.

Published
November 2010

Authors
Anne Pordes Bowers and Laura Bunt