The Office for Civil Society escaped cuts in the new Spending Round, with the government pledging to maintain its annual budget at £56m.
The Spending Round report, published after Chancellor George Osborne finished his speech in the Commons yesterday, stated: “The Cabinet Office settlement includes continued funding of £56m to support government programmes which encourage social action and help voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations play a bigger role in communities and public services.”
It also committed further expenditure to grow the National Citizen Service volunteering programme. On top of the 90,000 places already funded in 2014, the government will provide enough money for 120,000 places in 2015 and 150,000 places in 2016.
The report said: “By maintaining expenditure on wider civil society programmes, the government will continue to support the development of the social investment and social action agendas, strengthening those charities and social enterprises that assist the most vulnerable in society.”
As reported by civilsociety.co.uk yesterday, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport budget will be reduced by 7 per cent but its settlement includes “new operational freedoms” for national museums and funding cuts limited to 5 per cent for museums, the arts and community sport.
This means that Arts Council England, which has already sustained cuts of more than 30 per cent, will see another 5 per cent shaved off its funding settlement. Chair Peter Bazalgette said this was a “best-case scenario in what are difficult and testing economic times for everyone”.
He said the Arts Council would now consider how best to “run an investment strategy to provide maximum benefit to the arts sector and the wider public”.
More problems for charities
Other reactions were not so forgiving. New Philanthropy Capital’s chief executive Dan Corry said the cuts announced across government will “spell further problems for charities” and mean an inevitable reduction in services to vulnerable people.
Public service contracts will also get “tighter and tougher” for charities as councils and commissioners pass the need for savings down their supply chains, he said.
Homeless Link highlighted the proposed welfare changes, warning that the new seven-day wait for benefits could put many people at risk of destitution and increase reliance on payday lenders.
The cuts will also directly impact on homelessness and the ability of services throughout the country to tackle the issue, said policy manager Helen Mathie.
She praised the commitment of £3bn to build more affordable housing but said this is “simply not enough”.
Charity Finance Group chief executive Caron Bradshaw welcomed the continuation of the Charity Research Support Fund and the government’s commitment to look at how to make it easier for those organisations to claim gift aid.
She added: “While HMRC face further cuts of 5 per cent to their budget, we hope that it can continue to smooth the transition as far as is possible to Charities Online – we know from engagement with members that implementation has been rocky to date.”
