Ten major sector bodies have written to the Prime Minister asking him to make it easier for community groups to take over local assets and for smaller organisations to bid for government tenders.
The letter, signed by representatives from ten sector bodies including NCVO, Acevo, Navca, Charity Finance Group and Locality, was written in response to David Cameron’s speech focused on three principles for delivering a “smarter state”.
The signatories call upon the Prime Minister to “allocate funds to a Community Capital Fund which would receive bids for charities and community groups take over assets”. This, the signatories argue, would:
- Provide investment to organisations to support them in developing their plans, and to develop skills and capacity to operate the assets sustainably;
- Fund central support and advice to help the process of asset transfer, undertake research and share best practice on how to develop community assets;
- Provide capital grants to allow community organisations to lever in additional funding and finance to allow them to secure assets for sale.
The signatories also called upon the Prime Minister to safeguard the community assets of local authorities which they estimate to be worth £250bn in England.
The letter also calls for the Prime Minister to drive public service reform, by “enhancing transparency” in the commission process. The letter argues that currently, “we are seeing a trend within local government and other agencies to use commissioning and procurement processes to package up services into high value ‘all-in-one’ tenders which means that only large national organisations can bid.
“Enhancing transparency within supply chains, ensuring contracts are ‘community’ sized, and that due consideration is given to the social value and quality of proposed services,” would allow smaller organisations the chance to win tenders at little cost to the Exchequer.
The letter also said the community organisations are keen to play their part, as the government continues with its plans for devolution.
Tony Armstrong, chief executive of Locality (pictured), said that with the Spending Review looming it is important for the sector’s voice to be heard in government:
“We have written this letter to offer proposals to make these ambitions a reality. With the Spending Review mere weeks away, it is vital that the role of voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations are not overlooked.
“In order to, as the Prime Minister states in his speech ‘put services in the hands of local people’ it is vital action is taken to ensure communities are involved”.
