How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities


by Paul Cotterill    
8:45 am - October 14th 2011

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Coverage has been largely restricted to the specialist press, so I think it’s worth bringing to wider attention a secretive little government scheme to strip up to £300 million a year from an already battered voluntary and community sector.

The Cabinet Office is running a statutory consultation until 18th November on the future policy direction of the Big Lottery Fund (BLF).

Proposed new policy direction B is…

The need to ensure that the Fund achieves the distribution of funds to a reasonably wide spread of projects, primarily those delivered by the voluntary and community sector and social enterprises, including small organisations, those organisations operating at a purely local level, newly constituted organisations, organisations operating as social enterprises and organisations with a base in the United Kingdom and working overseas (my emphasis).

The small but significant change here is that, under this new direction, not all money will go to the VCS (in its broadest terms).

This is quite different from what was promised in the Conservative manifesto in 2010:

We will restore the national Lottery to its original purpose and, by cutting down on administration costs, make sure more money goes to good causes. the big Lottery fund will focus purely on supporting social action through the voluntary and community sector, instead of ministers’ pet projects as at present. Sports, heritage and the arts will each see their original allocations of 20 per cent of good cause money restored (p.39, my emphasis).

It is also quite different from what we were told, nearly exactly a year ago, by a Tory Minister:

The National Lottery has a fine record of supporting VCS projects, and we are absolutely clear that this work should continue. We will be directing the Big Lottery Fund to make sure that its future funding is focused very clearly on the VCS (my emphasis);

Fortunately, those good people down at the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) have spotted the subtle change of language, and their Chief Executive has come out fighting:

A year ago the Government reduced the share of good cause money going to the Big Lottery Fund from 50% to 40% and increased the shares going to support heritage, sport and art. At that time Ministers promised that 100% of Big Lottery Fund spend would be in the voluntary sector. Now they are just saying that primarily the money will go to our sector.

Public spending cuts especially in local government grants mean that there is more pressure than ever on lottery funding. I am worried that this is a quiet signal that more Big Lottery Fund spending will go to the statutory sector. And I would feel that the whole voluntary sector has been let down if the government reneges upon the reassurances it gave us just 12 months ago.

NAVCA estimates that if this new policy direction is followed through as they fear, up to £300 million a year could be lost to local charities and community groups.

Last week’s childcare support announcement started to fall apart under scrutiny, and today TCF and False Economy exposed how Cameron’s very personal ”Community right-to-buy” promise didn’t make it as far as reality. Here again the Tory devil is hidden in the civil service detail.

It really is starting to look like cuts by subterfuge may be a deliberate government strategy.

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About the author
Paul Cotterill is a regular contributor, and blogs more regularly at Though Cowards Flinch, an established leftwing blog and emergent think-tank. He currently has fingers in more pies than he has fingers, including disability caselaw, childcare social enterprise, and cricket.
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Reader comments


1. Cherub

It’s difficult enough applying for Big Lottery funding anyway. I’ve been through a few grant applications with the help of a district council officer and Big Lottery was the most complicated. This change does not bode well and looks as though it might exclude even more community projects.

The benefits of lottery funding have been very welcome, let’s hope that the concerns expressed when the lottery was set up, that ministerial meddling would just turn it into another funding source, will not come true under this desperately mendacious government.

2. Paul

Cherub @1: That’s an important point. A general truism (because its generally true) about grant schemes is that if money gets tighter, the way in which grant officers manage the extra pressure on the fund operationally is to increase the numbers of applications they sift out on purely ‘technical’ grounds, irrespective of the actual community benefit of those applications. In the BLF small grant case this might, just as an example, include tightening up on what is regarded as a ‘repeat activity’ so that it can more or less include anything a community organisaton has ever done before anyway.

This in turn militates further against proper grassroots bids.

3. Chaise Guevara

I’m confused. Apparently we’re soon to become a society where – inspired by the glowing example of David Cameron – everyone helps each other for free all the time, instead of bothering with silly things like “welfare” and “infrastructure” and “national human responsibility”. I’m told it’s going to happen any day now. So shouldn’t we be giving MORE money to charities, to help mobilise our new 60-million-strong army of selfless humanitarians? If I didn’t know better, I’d say these different government initiatives had not been properly thought out in relation to each other!

(Incidentally, does LC not count as “the specialist press”? It’s not exactly mainstream, is it?)

4. Paul

Chaise @3:

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say these different government initiatives had not been properly thought out in relation to each other!”

Blimey, I think you may be on to something.

“Incidentally, does LC not count as “the specialist press”? It’s not exactly mainstream, is it?”

Fair point re: LibCon, but this was cross-posted by Sunny from Though Cowards Flinch, which is of course a high-profile think tank and opinion-former relied on heavily by the mainstream media.

5. Tyler

Why doesn’t anyone ever mention the 5bn + Gordon Brown stripped from pensioners???

6. Chaise Guevara

“Why doesn’t anyone ever mention the 5bn + Gordon Brown stripped from pensioners???”

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that come up in conversation in the past.

7. Alisdair Cameron

Why doesn’t anyone ever mention the 5bn + Gordon Brown stripped from pensioners???

I don’t exactly know. Why doesn’t anyone ever mention the dissolution of the monasteries?
Possibly because it’s got no bearing at all upon the issue being discussed.
Echoing Paul and Chrub’s points: this will have the effect of favouring those large organisations (ie the grassroots can go hang) which have dedicated bid-writing staff and departments, meaning is essence either the corporate sector, or theworst, most corporatised mega-charities.It also looks like a back-door way for corporates to get someone else (ie the Lotto) to pay for activities to burnish their social responsibility reputations.

8. Watchman

Alisdair,

I don’t exactly know. Why doesn’t anyone ever mention the dissolution of the monasteries?
Possibly because it’s got no bearing at all upon the issue being discussed.

I don’t know – the dissolution of the monasteries was a clear case of central-government stripping assets from charitable local institutions if you ask me…

9. Alisdair Cameron

@ Watchman. Or alternatively, a regulator cracking down upon multinational private interests masquerading as charitable institutions, to the actual detriment of local people.

10. Watchman

Alisdair,

I like the idea of Henry VIII as the OFCom of his day. Clearly regulators have lost their edge a bit since…

In all fairness though, although the monasteries themselves were pretty lax, they did do a lot of charity locally – albeit that role was (this may surprise some readers) taken over by the local aristocracy/gentry.

11. Leon Wolfson

@3 – Well, no, there’s no money left you know.

Really, the Tories manage to parody their own police statements quite nicely, it’s a shame they can do so much damage while they’re doing so :/

12. dh

…and in the week that the EU announced its arrangements on the single farm payment will effectively bar conservation bodies (and local authorities) from about 50% of their agri-environmental grant support.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  2. meme

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  3. Ellen Doherty

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  4. Roger O Thornhill

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  5. Al Robertson

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  6. paolo

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  7. neilrfoster

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  8. Paul Cotterill

    Exciting devt: @sunny_hundal cross-posts me without editing http://t.co/XutW2CG8 It's about govt. subterfuge to nick £300m from VCS

  9. James Carter

    @Glinner Just spotted this, worthy of further research? How Tories plan to strip more money from charities: http://t.co/GWCaebsa

  10. Garry Haywood

    Exciting devt: @sunny_hundal cross-posts me without editing http://t.co/XutW2CG8 It's about govt. subterfuge to nick £300m from VCS

  11. Garry Haywood

    http://t.co/2ylXZEyj < perhaps @minforcivsoc can comment ?

  12. Garry Haywood

    @patrickjbutler important read for VCS http://t.co/2ylXZEyj

  13. Left Outside

    Exciting devt: @sunny_hundal cross-posts me without editing http://t.co/XutW2CG8 It's about govt. subterfuge to nick £300m from VCS

  14. stephanie cole

    Exciting devt: @sunny_hundal cross-posts me without editing http://t.co/XutW2CG8 It's about govt. subterfuge to nick £300m from VCS

  15. Nicola Chan

    Tory scum RT @libcon: How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/hR7nKTcs

  16. VeeBee

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  17. Alex Braithwaite

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/k1vvnCsf via @libcon

  18. Geoffrey Pearson

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  19. Paul Nezandonyi

    RT @libcon: How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/9l1aHq53

  20. Len Arthur

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  21. Thomas Swingler

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/DwjjyVNx

  22. David O'Keefe

    Exciting devt: @sunny_hundal cross-posts me without editing http://t.co/XutW2CG8 It's about govt. subterfuge to nick £300m from VCS

  23. paulstpancras

    .MUST READ How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from #charities | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/LCXjeC2h

  24. David Kent

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/gx6K8v9E

  25. kevin leonard

    RT @libcon: How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities http://t.co/D3WCYdlC

  26. Natacha Kennedy

    Tories plan to take £300m from charities http://t.co/W52GJk9K #bigsociety #bollocks

  27. Charlie Kiss

    They should be ashamed of themselves RT @natachakennedy: Tories plan to take £300m from charities http://t.co/xK9KBSfK #bigsociety #bollocks

  28. Brian Moylan

    RT @natachakennedy: How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from #charities http://t.co/Vj5WYTB7 #bigsociety #bollocks

  29. Tom Kiss

    They should be ashamed of themselves RT @natachakennedy: Tories plan to take £300m from charities http://t.co/xK9KBSfK #bigsociety #bollocks

  30. Matthew Bourgeois

    Big Society: Tories try to hide £300million funding cut to charities & community projects in the fine print… http://t.co/l2fOaV4U

  31. pauline grice

    This is deeply troubling. RT @natachakennedy: plan to take £300m from charities http://t.co/lz1g3RZA

  32. Soton_Unite

    How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/7YJUqWcY via @libcon





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