Budget special: Caution and austerity continues
In what was seen as a quiet Budget for the VCSE sector, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond made virtually no mention of charities or social enterprises in his speech or in subsequent Budget documents.
Read Jane Hartley's analysis: Budget special: Caution and austerity continues
The two announcements relevant for the sector were £20m to support organisations working to tackle domestic violence and abuse, and a further £12m for women’s charities from the Tampon Tax Fund.
Hammond did announce a further £2bn for social care over the next three years and a £300m fund to provide discretionary relief on business rates, from which charities might benefit.
Charities are likely to receive hundreds of millions of pounds more funding following the £2bn for social care, following extensive campaigning by many groups in the charity sector.
Sector infrastructure organisations have estimated that charities receive around 15 to 20 per cent of all social care funding in the UK.
NAVCA said of the £2bn for social care "We need to make sure that this supports the whole social care system and that includes charities as well as local councils.”
Many in the voluntary sector were dismayed at the lack of mention of charities in yesterday’s Budget, however some took a different spin on this saying it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, and that the voice of the sector spoke loudly on social care, and it was listened to.
Jay Kennedy, director of policy at the Directory of Social Change, said the Budget was "pretty much a total washout for charities" and it felt like the sector was not being heard. He said this was despite the fact that the charity sector was "holding this country together at the seams".
Caron Bradshaw, chief executive of the Charity Finance Group, said the Budget "highlights the big task that charities face in reintegrating ourselves into the heart of government".
She said: "The government’s increasingly narrow focus on physical infrastructure and business means that the government is unwittingly ignoring a key part of our economy and society. |
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