NAVCA urges government to intervene in Nottinghamshire cuts
NAVCA has written to Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, asking him to intervene in the case of Nottinghamshire County Council, which has made disproportionate funding cuts to the local voluntary sector. These cuts go against the government’s own policies to support charities and voluntary organisations through the Big Society agenda.
In the letter, Kevin Curley says that Nottinghamshire County Council has cut its budget for supporting the voluntary sector from £3.2m in 2010/11 to £1.4m in 2011/12, a reduction of 56 per cent. This percentage cut is very much higher than overall cuts made by Nottinghamshire County Council to its own services.
Kevin Curley’s letter also says the cuts to the voluntary sector budget were made before the introduction in September of the Best Value statutory guidance from the government, which says councils “should seek to avoid passing on disproportionate reductions by not passing on larger reductions to the voluntary and community sector and small businesses as a whole, than they take on themselves”. The letter points out that had this guidance been available before the cuts were made, the local voluntary and community sector “would have been in a position to challenge the council”.
Eric Pickles is urged in the letter to ask Kay Cutts, the leader of the council, to reinstate some of the voluntary sector budget, so that the cut in voluntary and community sector funding is in proportion to the cuts the council has made in its own services.
