‘Counting the Cuts’ report shows dim prospects for Britain’s charities

Yesterday, NCVO released their updated ‘Counting the Cuts’ report, which examines government funding cuts to the voluntary sector, and predicts a potential drop in funding of 15% by 2017/8, which translates to £1.7bn.

This steep decline however, is one of the ’best case scenarios’ - i.e. if cuts are proportionate to over all budgetary cuts at local authorities. Should cuts be disproportionate - as they already are at 50% of councils responding to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request - the sector could lose as much as £2.1bn from government.

NCVO’s study uses OBR economic forecasts, charity accounts data and data obtained directly from local authorities as part of a Freedom of Information (FoI) campaign. The analysis and estimates focus on three possible scenarios – proportionate cuts to charity funding, disproportionate cuts, and a ‘contract winning scenario’.

The following diagram may make grim reading for many of our Back Britain’s Charities supporters:

The NCVO say that they compile this data because government fails to provide reliable figures on charity/voluntary sector expenditure…

In order to debate this very issue, the Back Britain’s Charities campaign are holding an event in Parliament on the 10th June.

The event, entitled “Cuts in the Community: Can councils justify disproportionate reductions in charity funding?”, will be asking the following questions amongst many others:

• Are the councils that are cutting charity funding merely playing politics or have austerity measures left them with little choice?
• Do charities need to innovate in order to truly earn the funding they get?
• Is Government doing enough to ensure small and medium-sized charities aren’t muscled out? 
• Are charities always in a better position to meet the needs of their local communities?

The format will be of a panel event with representatives from local government, central government and charity, followed by a lively 45minute Q&A session.

Places are now extremely limited due to the overwhelming popularity of the topic, but if you would like to enquire regarding the last few places or be added to the cancellations list, please just email contact@backbritainscharities.org.uk.

It is destined to be a great event and we’ll be sure to document it in full on the blog next month!