Seems like budget consultation’s heading in interesting directions at the moment.

First of all, the news came out recently that the government is to ‘pilot’ participatory budgeting in various areas across the UK. It’s not necessarily a series of pilots, as some of these places have been using participatory budgeting for a while now, but good to see more of it done. I spoke at an event with a guy from the Participatory Budgeting Unit last autumn, and it’s great stuff. Doesn’t seem that easy as a concept to take online though, which in some ways is a shame, and in others isn’t.

Second, the Treasury has produced something surprisingly similar to our Budget Simulator tool, except not as well designed, it only does the ’simulation’ part, and seems to leave out the data collection or consultation element. Shame, but it’s a start nonetheless.

Meanwhile, lots of people are enquiring about Budget Simulator at the moment, which is good. Every year leads to new ideas for how to use it, and this year some really interesting ideas have emerged. We’ll keep you posted on their progress!