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• Cabinet policy wonk’s intervention prompts serious questions over NHS privatisation, says Unite
• Plans for local authorities to administer the new public health budgets are ‘ill-thought out’, says Unite
• Unite calls for 'dignity and justice' for disabled workers on International Day of Disabled People
• Government wastes opportunity to get tough on tax avoidance
• BA faces court hearing on policy of dismissing Hong Kong cabin crew at 45
• Unite demonstration as London council leaders meet over fate of hundreds of voluntary sector organisations
• Britain accused of acting like ‘Pontius Pilate’ over 40-year ordeal of Moroccans in Gibraltar
• BAE cuts are a tragedy for British manufacturing
• Crippling fees will deny UK skilled workers, warns Unite
• Unite expresses concern over the future of De La Rue

Unite demonstration as London council leaders meet over fate of hundreds of voluntary sector organisations

8 December 2010

Unite, the largest union in the country, is holding a demonstration on Tuesday 14 December to stop moves that could see hundreds of voluntary sector projects in London axed.

Unite members will demonstrate as the London Councils’ leaders committee meets to decide whether to give individual London boroughs control of a large tranche of funding for the not for profit sector.

Unite, which has 60,000 members in the not for profit sector, believes that proposals by the London Councils’ grants committee (LCGC) to repatriate a significant proportion of the funding to individual councils will see projects closed down, as there will be no ‘ring fencing’ of the cash.

The demonstration will be staged at 59½ Southwark Street, London SE1 0AL from 10.00am on Tuesday 14 December.
 
Unite’s lead officer for the not for profit sector in London, Alan Scott, said: ”If these plans are allowed to go-ahead, it will be another nail in the coffin of a strategic shared approach to solving some of the capital’s most entrenched social problems.

”A worst case scenario could see funding for 400 projects end on 31 March next year and future funds disappearing into the overall council budgets with no ring fencing or guarantee that it will go to the voluntary sector to support the most disadvantaged.”

Unite, with 20,000 voluntary sector members in the capital, wants to retain the London-wide funding scheme, which has been running since 1985, for the range of vital services provided by voluntary sector organisations.

Alan Scott said: ”At a time when people are faced with unemployment, housing, debt and personal issues because of the affects of the coalition’s austerity measures, it is madness to cut back on the voluntary sector, which provides essential support and practical assistance to those with nowhere else to turn.”

Currently, London councils invest £28 million a year in voluntary organisations on behalf of all the London councils. They fund more than 400 organisations, with individual grants ranging from between £5,000 and £500,000.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

For further information, please contact Alan Scott on 07980 721411 and/or Unite communications officer Shaun Noble on 07768 693940