More than four in five councils for voluntary service feel that their local voluntary sector will see its finances weaken in the next 12 months, according to a survey by local infrastructure body Navca.

The latest survey took place in January and is part of a sequence of quarterly surveys going back to 2012.

Navca says it uses a panel of 40 CVSs – around 10 per cent of all members – selected to be representative of its membership. It says most CVSs respond to each survey, and that this ensures comparability despite a small sample size.

CVSs’ views on the sector differed from figures for individual organisations. Around three in five organisations expect their own finances to get worse. Organisations became steadily more optimistic about their own funding situation until July last year – at which point less than half expected the situation to get worse. But this has now risen to three in five.

Despite this, organisations are becoming more optimistic about the future of their organisations, with more two in five saying they are optimistic, compared to less than one in four saying they were pessimistic.

“One thing we’ve noticed is that pessimism grows and relationships with local authorities get worse around this time of year because it is directly before budgets are set, but then they improve each summer,” said Neil Cleeveley, chief executive of Navca. “This year that may be more pronounced simply because the election increases uncertainty.”

Cleeveley said that interaction with local authorities was key to success.

“The lack of funding for voluntary and community action is a major concern,” he said. “There is still this disconnect between what politicians say and what they do. They say they want to help local charities and volunteers to support communities but are not providing the support necessary to make it happen.”