London charities have won a judicial review challenge against London Council’s decision to cut its London Boroughs Grant Scheme by 63.5 per cent.

The claim was brought by Pierce Glynn, solicitors, on behalf of service-users of charities affected by the plans to cut £10m from the £26.4m in funding provided by London Councils to voluntary sector organizations in London.

The judge held that London Councils’ consultation process was flawed and that they had failed to meet their statutory equality duties. He quashed all the funding cut decisions for the 200 plus projects and he said that London Councils must re-run the process, this time with full equality impact assessments.

The claimants’ solicitor, Louise Whitfield, a specialist in claims raising equality issues and cuts to the voluntary sector, said:

“This case establishes that even in the current economic climate, it remains of paramount importance that public sector funding cut decisions are properly assessed for their gender, disability and race equality impacts.

“If they are not, public sector funding cut decisions will be unlawful.

“London Councils simply did not consider the full effect of their £10 million cuts on the hundreds of voluntary sector groups and tens of thousands of members of the public who would be affected. They will now be required to do so.”

London Councils is a cross-party organisation, funded and run by the member authorities: London’s 32 London boroughs, plus the City of London, the Metropolitan Police Authority and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.