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Press Release

LGA response to DLCG community budgets announcement

21 December 2011

In response to the Government's announcement on new community budget pilots, Cllr Sir Merrick Cockell, Chairman of the Local Government Association, said:

"By sharing their resources, funding and expertise through community budgets, councils and the rest of the local public sector can transform services and give local taxpayers a much better deal.

“Although Defra and DCLG have shown signs of a commitment, to see genuine reform we will need greater buy-in from all of Whitehall. The successful pilots helping disadvantaged families show how well community budgets can work in terms of improving services and saving taxpayers' money.

“However, some departments are lagging behind and need to take much greater steps towards localism. Greg Clark's report on how successful each department has been at decentralisation will provide an important contribution towards this debate. We await the outcome of this with interest.

“These pilots, particularly those for 'Whole Place', represent a once in a generation opportunity for really radical reform, putting local communities in control of local services.

“Government departments should use this joined up approach to devolve responsibilities from Whitehall to local areas. Council leaders look forward to grasping this opportunity to show Whitehall that this really is a much better way to run public services. If the pilots prove successful, the tide will be firmly in the direction of pushing out community budgets right across the country.

“Community budgets offer the most innovative way to improve public services and help vulnerable people, whilst also saving money for the taxpayer.”





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Local Government Association

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