News

Voluntary groups in Cambridgeshire to lose funding in £4.5m cut

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 28 Sep 2010

A number of charities in Cambridgeshire face a funding shortfall after money allocated in a £9m funding pot for Cambridgeshire County Council has been cancelled by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Under the £9m Local Public Service Reward fund, 92 projects were receiving funding from Cambridgeshire County Council and other local District Councils, including 30 voluntary groups' projects.

But payment was suspended following the government's emergency budget in June, so that only £4.5m has been paid out up to 31 March 2010.

Steve Vartoukian, head of community development at the County Council, said: “Government has declined to pay any further amount beyond the £4.5m. The decision by government has put all the sponsoring authorities in a difficult position.

“Some projects have completed or are under review. But for some it will be a premature closure or project reduction.” 

Councillors in the region have reacted angrily, saying it will damage the trust between them and the voluntary sector.

Fred Brown, leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, told Cambridge News: “We tasked the voluntary sector to go out and spend the money and put arrangements in place. “Some groups will be expecting money from East Cambs, but they are not going to get it back.

“We have a lot of work to do if we want to re-win their faith. It is disgraceful to do something retrospectively as they have done to us.”

A spokeswoman from Care Network, a Cambridgeshire charity for the elderly which received funding from the £9m pot, told Civil Society that the charity only found out about the funding cut when an invoice to the council was not paid:

“We realised about the funding shortfall when we invoiced the Council in July and they told us they couldn't pay it," she said.

"The cut represents £43,500 in our budget. Our income is less than £250,000, so it’s a fair chunk. It’s had a big impact – staff have had to reduce hours and we are having difficulties in maintaining services. There is no guarantee we will continue.”

Tweet