Principles underpinning the Total Place approach to local services will be adopted by the Community Budgets, a government initiative allowing councils and their partners to pool funding and resources with the purpose of improving services and reducing cost.

From April, a selected number of councils and partner organisations will put various strands of funding into a single ‘local bank account'. This will be used to set up community budgets that will be spent on services prioritised by local communities.

The initiative follows year-long Total Place pilots, testing how to improve services while reducing costs and encouraging greater collaboration between organisations, and wider involvement of local people.

Earlier this year, Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, described Total Place as "a step in the right direction", but says councils now have the opportunity to be more radical and innovative.