Bringing Budgets Alive: Participatory budgeting in practice

Overview

This report describes how Community Pride Initiative have tried to use the principles of participatory budgeting, as developed in Brazil, to improve the way public money is used in Greater Manchester. It outlines how to create added value from adopting participatory budgeting ideas and shows that it is possible to operate participatory budgets using no more than a few per cent of the annual revenue budget of a Local Authority. With a positive approach, that money can bring about substantial changes in established ways of working. It outlines the necessary preconditions for participatory budgeting, and gives a detailed outline of how it works in practice, describing the key elements and stages of a participatory budgeting process.