A raid on the Big Lottery Fund money would be hated by every single MP, says Dan Corry, chief executive of NPC.
In my years as a civil servant and special advisor, I have been involved in plenty of Spending Reviews, seeing it both from the Treasury as well as from a number of departments. And I know this: the things that trip you up are not always the obvious ones.
In this respect George Osborne may be about to walk into a massive bear pit of a problem.
In times where money is hard to come by, it is not surprising that we are hearing increasingly loud whispers that the Big Lottery will be raided, maybe to the tune of over £300m. It sounds like the government is trying to solve a problem for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, since the talk is that the cash will go to arts and sport.
This is bad policy and appalling politics. It will unravel, and will cause far more headaches than it is worth. Here’s why.
First, the Lottery has always been understood as bringing additional funding to the table, primarily for the voluntary sector. It is absolutely not supposed to be replacing public funding. To break this principle will cause all sorts of problems, and will enrage many lottery players along the way, the very people whose money it dishes out.
Second, it will formally mark the end of anything like the Big Society. The Prime Minister has been trying to revive the Big Society in recent times, including in the Tory Manifesto this May, to give some meaning to his administration beyond austerity and reducing the size of the state. No amount of spin about a bit of extra money in the Spending Review to aid social investment or to maintain the National Citizens Service will overcome that.
Third, the voluntary sector will be hit badly at a time when it is struggling in other ways. It would be daft to imagine that the sector should be immune to cuts when they are so widespread, but a move against the Lottery could see goodwill towards policy makers shot to pieces. That is not a constituency that any government should want to lose so completely.
Fourth, and most crucially in the tough old word of politics, every MP will hate it. They will return to their constituencies to be inundated with local community groups and small, kitchen-sink charities telling them what this means. The Treasury will risk ending up with MPs at their throats, in an argument that will cross party lines just as much as tax credits.
The party whips should be asked what they think of the idea – I suspect it will be telling.
Of course it’s right to look at spending resource differently. But the government already has the leverage to insist that the Big Lottery direct more of its funding towards things like health, which would help massively with public services while commanding the support of the public and MPs. This sort of move would break no promises of the past.
But an open raid on the Big Lottery? That’s one thing George Osborne and his political team should strike out of the Spending Review scorecard right away.
