Supporting Britain's communities

The 2004 Spending Review today set out the Government’s policy priorities for the voluntary and community sector, emphasising the fundamental role voluntary and community activity plays in building local communities.

The Home Office’s Spending Review settlement provides for continued investment in the voluntary and community sector including through the Futurebuilders fund. There will also be further investment in youth volunteering, and a national framework for community mentoring will be developed. A new campaign will take forward the Corporate challenge.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Paul Boateng said:

“The Spending Review underlines our overwhelming commitment to developing a strong and lasting partnership with the voluntary and community sector. We know that as well as giving an invaluable contribution to helping us create world class public services, our country’s voluntary and community sector strengthens local communities in a way that no government could.”

The Minister for the voluntary and community sector, Fiona Mactaggart said:

“We have come a very long way together since the 2002 Cross-cutting review, developing the infrastructure framework to build capacity and launching the widely acclaimed Futurebuilders fund. I am determined that we increase voluntary and community engagement still further by continued investment in those areas, together with clear support for the extremely promising work being undertaken by the Russell Commission on Youth Volunteering.”

The Chief Executive of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), Stuart Etherington, said:

"I welcome the Spending Review announcement, which addresses some of the key priorities of the voluntary and community sector and in particular acknowledges the scale and role of the sector far beyond service delivery. NCVO looks forward to working in partnership with Government to ensure that this investment makes a real difference for voluntary organisations and the millions of people they support."

Peter Wheeler, Chair of Futurebuilders England, the independent voluntary sector consortium appointed by Government to run the fund, said:

"We welcome the Government's continued commitment to Futurebuilders. The consortium, Futurebuilders England, is delighted by the very strong support shown by the Government for this groundbreaking way of working, which demonstrates government and the sector working in true partnership."

Details

The Home Office has a Public Service Agreement (PSA) to increase voluntary and community engagement, especially amongst those at risk of social exclusion.
Over and above this the Government recognises the voluntary and community sector’s role in supporting, regenerating and integrating local communities and will:
- invest £90 million in a new “Invest to Save – Inclusive Communities” fund, in part to help voluntary and community organisations promote English language skills, employment training and cultural integration amongst legal migrants to the UK;
- roll forward £525 million a year for the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund;
- introduce a single ‘Safer and Stronger Communities’ fund, pooling funding streams to empower local communities to improve local quality of life;
- establish a Local Community Sector Taskforce to enable neighbourhood and community groups to manage the wind-down of the Single Regeneration Budget;
Recognising the voluntary and community sector’s role in service delivery, the Home Office will:
- continue to invest in the Futurebuilders fund;
- continue investment in building the capacity and infrastructure of the voluntary and community sector;
- increase awareness amongst local funding agencies of the value added to service provision by involving the voluntary and community sector, and develop an action plan to strengthen links between them.
Recognising the voluntary and community sector’s role in engaging individuals and business in volunteering and giving, the Government will support the 2005 UK Year of the Volunteer;
- consider the recommendations of the Russell Commission on Youth Volunteering reporting at the end of the year;
- support promotion and expansion of opportunities for mentoring; and
- support a business-lead National Campaign, taken forward as part of the 2005 UK Year of the Volunteer, to increase corporate community involvement through the Corporate Challenge initiative.
These reforms go alongside ongoing work on the Charities Bill, to reform charity law and modernise charity regulation, currently going through the process of pre-legislative scrutiny committee. The Home Office has overall responsibility for the Charities Bill, and the Charity Commission, as the independent regulator of charities, will have a key role in the implementation of this legislation

Notes for editors

For further details, please contact the Treasury Press Office on 0207 270 5238.

Supporting Britain's communities

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Notes for editors

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