"Bleakest week for a generation" for Housing Services claims magazine

Voluntary Sector Cuts map - Yorkshire & Humberside

INSIDE HOUSING has written a stark assessment of Housing Services this week in light of the impact of spending cuts with the onset of the new financial year. Scores of housing providers across the country face funding cuts of up to 45%. It said:

"Housing professionals have experienced the bleakest week for a generation as hundreds of projects closed or had their funding slashed as the new financial year started."

The weekly magazine for Housing Professionals cites cases in Hull where 20 elderly residents are having to move out of their sheltered housing scheme after Sanctuary Housing’s funding was reduced by £23,000 by Hull Council. Also the homeless charity Doorstep has made 10 members of staff redundant after the council cut its funding by £240,000.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations published a list of charities facing cuts. Of the 454 cuts it listed - worth £74 million - "149 were housing related" says Inside Housing.

Read the Inside Housing article: Dark Day for Housing Services.

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Big Society 'red tape' purge

GRAHAM STUART, MP for Beverley and Holderness MP, is calling on all charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to help in the fight against excessive red tape.

His call comes as the Government launches a joint Cabinet Office and Department of Business, Innovation and Skills task force to look at ways of making life easier for groups working in the voluntary and social sector. The Government has said that it is committed to making it easier to run charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises. Reducing bureaucratic burdens will free-up time and resources for these organisations to make a difference in their communities and help mobilise the Big Society.

Graham said: “I have, with the help of the East Riding Voluntary Action Services and Virtual Riders, contacted nearly every charity, social enterprise and voluntary group in the constituency. It is vital they contribute as much evidence as possible to the task force so it can make meaningful changes to the processes which these groups need to go through. As we push forward with the idea of a Big Society it is important Government does as much as possible to smooth the path for the very groups and organisations which communities rely on. I do not want to see them entangled in red tape which could easily have been slashed.”

The task force is a commitment in the Cabinet Office Structural Reform Plan. Its purpose is to investigate and recommend measures to reduce the burdens on small organisations and it is a vital tool in achieving the Government's aim to make it easier to run a charity, social enterprise or voluntary organisation.

The chairman will be Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbots, who has spent his career advising and working with small and medium sized enterprises, and is currently NCVO President (National Council for Voluntary Organisations).

Evidence can be submitted by filling in a form at www.grahamstuart.com/cutting-red-tape/ or by emailing red.tape.taskforce@cabinetoffice.x.gsi.gov.uk

Useful Links:

• ERVAS
• Virtual Riders
• NCVO

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