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Communities in Control

My right hon. Friend has a lot of previous history on this agenda, from as long ago as when he was a local councillor in Sheffield seeking to empower local people. I can certainly assure him that the £70 million communitybuilders fund and the £7.5 million empowerment fund will be about increasing people's capacity to participate in decisions and shape their own future. He knows, as I do, of the excellent work at Perry Common in Birmingham, in Balsall Heath, in the Goodwin Development Trust in Hull and in our communities where local people are striving, sometimes against the odds. It is about time that national Government got behind those local people and gave them the ability to reach the potential that they undoubtedly have.