Comment & Analysis
reaction to the budget 2011 03Read our assessment of the Budget and how it affects voluntary and community groups.
Don't be fooled by the scraps from the table, the real damage is already done says Urban Forum Chief Executive, Toby Blume:
Right up to the last, the content of the localism Bill arrived before the Bill was actually published...we had a written ministerial statement, an oral statement, an essential guide and a media briefing note in advance of the Bill finally being published. And the second part of the bill - all 247 pages of it - was only published today. There were therefore unsurprisingly few surprises in it.
The Big Society programme has polarised debate, with opinion divided between those who regard it as an ambitious plan to radically transform social policy and others who see it as a cynical attempt to plug the gaps in public service as public spending is withdrawn. This paper aims to provide a measured and constructive response to the programme that recognises its current strengths and weaknesses and brings a community sector perspective to the debate.
Is it better to nudge or think?I attended a really interesting seminar recently, where Manchester and Southampton Universities presented the findings from research experiments they've been conducting looking at whether ‘nudges' and deliberation can be used to increase civic behaviour. I joined panellists RSA Chief Exec Matthew Taylor and ResPublica's Phillip Blond to offer some thoughts on the research findings and what the implications were for public bodies and voluntary and community groups. Here's what I had to say....
Read our analysis of the Post Office banking proposals.
Given a distinct lack of wriggle-room given the state of the public finance, the budget probably offered more for the third sector than we might have reasonably expected.
As ever with these things, the devil is in the detail and most of the measures that should be good news for civil society, could soon turn to dust with poor management. However that was always going to be the case and the alternative would have been fewer announcements that at least have real potential to be good!
In ‘Talking to the community' Elin Gudnadottir discusses the importance of good communication between community groups and councillors and the opportunities it brings to both groups.
Very few people foresaw the economic situation we now find ourselves in or predicted that the government would be forced to bail out collapsing banks that just a few months previously were being heralded as world leaders. Despite the immediate and significant challenges and hardship the recession brings, the current situation also provides a once in a generation opportunity to fundamentally re-think how we do things and ask ‘what sort of society do we want to have in the future?'. With bold thinking and a clear vision, the banking sector, which precipitated the current downturn, can in future become a force for sustainable, positive social change.
Following the publication of the government's Empowerment White Paper - Communities in Control, Urban Forum has produced an analysis of the White Paper.
Research conducted by Urban Forum on how Community Empowerment Networks are faring with the introduction of Local Area Agreements makes for alarming reading. Toby Blume analyses the findings here.
