Hackney community projects safe from spending cuts – for now

Hackney Council has increased the budget for its Voluntary and Community Sector Grants. Photograph: Hackney Citizen

Small charities and community projects that rely on local authority funding breathed a collective sigh of relief last month when Hackney Council announced it had no plans to include these organisations in the current round of cuts.

Although it has to slash £25m from its overall budget, the authority announced a small increase in spending on its Voluntary and Community Sector Grants Program, which will go up by £50,000 in 2012/13 to £2.5m.

The fund gives grants ranging from a few hundred pounds to as much £50,000 to small and medium sized organisations that help children, families, homeless people and others.

Finsbury Park Homeless Families Project, which works to improve the lives of homeless families living in temporary accommodation, told the Hackney Citizen that even though it hadn’t received the full £40K grant applied for, the £26K it had been given was “a really good start to the new year”.

A spokesperson for the Hoxton Legal Advice Service added: “Our two year grant is really important because it allows us to provide continuity for our staff and clients.
We are very grateful for the grant. Providing services like ours for people during the downturn is even more vital than normal.”

Jake Ferguson, Chief Executive of the voluntary and community sector support agency Hackney CVS, wants the council to carry on funding small projects beyond the current spending round.

“This is great news for the voluntary and community sector in Hackney,” he said. “I hope that it [the council] can continue this commitment in 2013/14 by maintaining the level of investment.”