Community budgets and city deals - Commons Library Standard Note

There have been many recent initiatives to join up or pool budgets between local authorities and other public sector bodies. These have taken various forms since the early 1990s. The latest iteration is a series of pilots of ‘community budgets’, taking place in fourteen neighbourhoods (within ten different local authorities) and in four ‘whole place’ areas across local authorities.

The initial schemes were introduced in order to take a more holistic approach to ‘problem families’, with complex needs across a range of public services, but the second phase of community budgets from late 2011 onwards covered a more diverse array of intended outcomes. The 2013 Budget referenced the four ‘whole place’ community budget pilots and announced the creation of a national network to spread the lessons arising from them. The House of Commons’ Communities and Local Government Committee examined the issue in late 2011 and expects to return to it in the first half of 2013.

The initiative of ‘city deals’ has similar aims, though it has been driven by the Department of Business, Information and Skills together with the Deputy Prime Minister. This involves passing bespoke sets of powers and budgets to large city authorities or wider areas, following agreement on policies and targets. This initiative is more clearly linked to economic growth-related policies and to Local Enterprise Partnerships.

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