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Charities are to be helped through the recession with a £40m government bailout. A third sector action plan was today unveiled to help the voluntary sector cope as funds dwindle and demand for their services grows.
The plan will include a £15.5m community resilience fund to provide grant funding to community organizations, and a £16.5m modernization fund to help charities improve their efficiency.
The School for Social Entrepreneurs will receive £500,000 investment to double the number of people it trains to become social entrepreneurs, and a £10m volunteer scheme will create 40,000 volunteering opportunities.
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A national third sector organisation has defended two government programmes that were criticised by spending watchdogs for administrative weaknesses and a failure to demonstrate value for money. Auditors said the impact of ChangeUp and Futurebuilders, Cabinet Office schemes created in 2004 to strengthen the capacity of the voluntary and community sector, could not be measured effectively because of a lack of initial targets.
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A new company will be created to ensure the 2012 London Olympics benefits local communities for years to come. Its task will be to find a viable future after the games for the many venues created for the Olympics. It will also help drive a long-term programme of development and regeneration in east and south-east London over the next two decades.
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Ministers have rejected calls from England’s top rural adviser for a new forum investigating poor access to cash among firms and low levels of funding among councils. They said proposals to introduce a rural finance forum would duplicate existing national, regional and local structures and impose an extra layer of unnecessary bureaucracy which would ‘not be likely to add significant value’.
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An ‘ultra green workspace’ has opened at a business hub for science and technology firms. The suite, which organisers say showcases sustainability, was built using products from environmentally friendly sources with carpets from ‘carbon-negative’ manufacturers.
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