• THE public sector and the citizens and businesses of Camden have united as never before to look after the vulnerable and help one another.

However, a substantial group are reliant on charities, community groups, faith groups and so on.

At the very moment that charities and voluntary organisations are most needed they face substantial losses of vital funding.

The chancellor has largely excluded them from his business rates support scheme and charity staff can only be furloughed if they stop responding to the current crisis.

Charities and voluntary organisations are using up financial reserves and urgently fundraising to keep going.

The coronavirus crisis has led to massive drops in income, with many now having to make hard decisions about whether they can continue to operate. Closure becomes a real possibility.

Charities in Camden are keen to do everything they can to help in the crisis and to continue to support the people who they work with but many are now having to make hard decisions – help now, or survive in the future.

The council has waived rents for charities for three months and many funders have been flexible about allowing organisations to reconfigure services to meet the current emergency.

However, it is the chancellor’s measures that could make the most profound difference. He has given every small business in the country a £10,000 business rates grant – yet withheld this from charities.

He has implemented a programme that allows businesses to furlough unlimited numbers of staff on 80 per cent pay – as long as they don’t work. This poses a cruel dilemma to charities – it makes more financial sense to close down and furlough staff.

It is a deeply frustrating situation. Most councils have already distributed tens of millions of support grants to small businesses, while the charities responding to the crisis have received a pittance in comparison.

The latest figures from the Treasury suggest that £4billion of the £12billion set aside to support small businesses in unspent so this could be allocated to charities or it will simply be returned to Whitehall.

“Sufficient funding is currently held by local authorities and could be distributed quickly to charities in desperate need of a financial stimulus,” Charity Tax Group said in a statement.

In response, the chancellor has just announced a “top up” to the £10,000 business rates grant scheme that should include charities but it is aimed solely at those with fixed property costs – something only a minority of charities have.

And he has given discretion to councils in the allocation of this new funding. The government says it will be for councils to adapt their approach to local circumstances. It is vital that local charities get a fair share of this new funding.

Allowing charities to furlough staff would cost the country very little, yet would make a huge difference to local charities and the communities they support as they respond swiftly and flexibly to this emergency.

We are calling for residents and organisations to contact your councillor to urge the council to give local charities their fair share of financial support.

And to contact your MP, Sir Keir Starmer or Tulip Siddiq, to let the chancellor know that his current measures are hindering the charity response to the coronavirus crisis.

KEVIN NUNAN
Executive Director
Voluntary Action Camden