| Communities in Control: Public services and local socialism |
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Hazel Blears, Member of Parliament for Salford calls for community control over key sections of the public services, to move beyond the 'public sector' and to create a 'public realm' in her Fabian pamphlet. Transcending consultation and participation, the author looks at how local communities can own, manage, plan, and benefit from public services, and how the public realm will be richer as a result. By rediscovering the third of socialism's famous trilogy of values – community – a new approach to public policy can be forged. Blears calls for new forms of community interest companies, an extension of stakeholder ownership in the health service, and a new Citizen Participation Agency to create a new generation of community activists and leaders.
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The relationship between citizens and their public services needs to be transformed so that local people have control over their public services. Invoking the spirit of mutualism and co-operation and applying it to public service provision, Blears calls for community control over key sections of public services, to move beyond the 'public sector' and to create a 'public realm'.
