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£110m cuts estimate 'far too low', says NCVO 2

Finance | Gareth Jones | 2 Aug 2011

Today’s widely publicised research from the trade union-backed campaigning group False Economy significantly underestimates the true scale of government funding cuts, according to NCVO.

False Economy’s research, which is based on 265 freedom of information responses from local councils across England, highlights net reductions of £110m this year, with 2,215 charities affected.

The research admits that final totals are likely to be “far higher” as some local authorities have yet to finalise where cuts will hit, but highlighted that Birmingham City Council had cut funding to 191 charities, with London Councils having cut the second largest number, on a total 174.

With the report and the £110m figure widespread gaining coverage on national media outlets such as the BBC, Guardian and Times, NCVO head of research Karl Wilding (pictured) questioned the figure on Twitter, saying: “Sadly I think today's TUC / False Economy research woefully under-reports impact of cuts on charities.”

He later added: “it's based on returns to an FOI request only - it's not then extrapolated for the country, plus its only local govt.”

Speaking to CivilSociety.co.uk, NCVO policy manager James Allen said: “I think in terms of the research it's an interesting snapshot of what’s going on, as it’s actually very hard to quantify what the overall impact of cuts is without speaking to every charity that’s in receipt of funding and every local authority as well.

“But the figure we’re comfortable with is more like £750m this year.”

Next week NCVO intends to release comprehensive research estimating the scale of the cuts via the use of government statistics and by taking on board a range of other factors.

The research will indicate that across the five years of this spending review, the sector is facing cuts in the region of £2bn.

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Directory: National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
Who's Who: Karl Wilding