The Empowerment White Paper- Communities in Control: real people, real power - was launched today (9th July2008) by The Deparment for Communities and Local Government (CLG).  

CLG's own description of the White Paper states: "Communities in control tells the story of power, influence and control and how people can use existing and new tools to access it. The White Paper looks at who has power, on whose behalf is it exercised, how is it held to account, and how can it can be accessed by everyone in local communities."

You can access the White Paper here.

To coincide with the launch of the White Paper, Ipsos MORI have released a report examining the impact of empowerment in New Deal for Communities areas. You can access this report here.

And Involve have just launched, along with the National Consumer Council and Diane Warburton at Shared Practice, 'Deliberative Public Engagement - Nine Principles' .

The aim of this document is to encourage and support good quality deliberative public engagement activities. The authors believe that when done well, such activities can help to create better public services, promote social cohesion and foster a thriving democracy. You can access the publication here.