Cuts to funding for voluntary organizations in Leicester and Leicestershire appear to be similar to national trends based on several data sources: - Surveys of local voluntary groups found around half faced funding cuts similar to other parts of England. - Official local government figures show grants increased due to accounting changes, making comparisons difficult, while total spending is projected to fall more in Leicester but less in Leicestershire than average. - Analysis of Charity Commission data found total income grew faster in Leicester and Leicestershire than nationally since 2000 but has since contracted more sharply.

1. How do cuts in Leicester and
Leicestershire compare to the
national picture?
Pete Bass, Research Associate, NCVO
http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk
A more detailed version of these slides is available at:
http://goo.gl/h5BlrE

2. How do cuts in Leicester and Leicestershire
compare to the national picture?
• Cuts are difficult to measure, and comparable data is
hard to come by, and incomplete.
• Nonetheless, I‟m going to look at four sources of
information:
– Asking local authorities through FOI requests
– Local surveys by voluntary sector groups
– Comparing the official figures
– Evidence from annual returns submitted to the Charity
Commission register
• Looking forward – how long will austerity last?

3. Asking local authorities through FOI
requests….
Grants
(2010/11 to 2011/12)
Leicester
Leicestershire
Rest of England
Contracts
(2010/11 to 2011/12)
Not supplied
Fell from £20.9m to
£20.7m
A decrease of 1.1%
??
LOWER THAN AVERAGE
Reduced from £1.8m to
Fell from fell from £19.3m
£1.6m, a 12% cut
to £17.6m by 8.7%
HIGHER THAN AVERAGE LOWER THAN AVERAGE
197 LAs provided figures 166 LAs provided figures
for both years, total
Contracts fell from
budget reduced from
£525.0m to £468.0m
£153.4m to £141.8m, a fall A fall of 10.8%
of 7.5%
Source: Compact Voice, FOI requests http://www.compactvoice.org.uk/foi2012

4. Local surveys of voluntary groups….
• VAL survey in 2011 – similar proportion of groups in the City
and County reported cuts to public funding (49% and 51%)
with a further 20% expecting cuts in future.
• London – (LVSC) 60% reported a reduction in their overall
funding in 2012-13.
• North East (VONNE) 59% saw a decrease in funding in 2013,
79% of respondents reported some funding from public sector
grants, 50% from contracts.
• Nottingham (NCVS) in 2012 69% of respondents were facing
a reduced income.
Hard to compare, perhaps best we can say is that
organisations in Leicester and Leicestershire seem to be
facing a similar situation to those elsewhere…

5. What do the official figures show?
• Short answer: there aren‟t any figures collected at a national level
about voluntary sector funding.
• Local Government Finance Statistics 2013 (DCLG) – “Grants to
voluntary bodies” increased by 35% ! (but this is due to changes in
accounting, and some large stock-transfers to housing
associations). No figure for contracts available.
What about total council spending?
• Comparing councils by DCLG „Spending Power‟ measure
(excluding Public Health)
• 2013-14 (current year) CITY +0.4%, COUNTY -2.2%, All England 1.7%
• 2014-15 Looking ahead – CITY facing -6.5%, COUNTY facing 2.5% reduction, England -3.9%

6. Rest of England
120
100
80
60
40
20
Source: Analysis of Charity Commission register for VAL, Sep 2013
NB: Indexed, Cumulative % change since 2001, adjusted for inflation using RPIX.
2011-12
2010-11
2009-10
2008-09
2006-07
2005-06
2003-04
2002-03
2001-02
0
2000-01
%
Leicestershire
2007-08
Leicester
2004-05
The Voluntary sector in Leicester, Leicestershire and the rest of England:
Cumulative growth in total income since 2000-01 (%)

7. Austerity – how far have we got to go?
Local Government
Change from 2010/11 (£ millions)
500
40
0
-362
-500
-34
-396
-643
Central Government
58
-672
-603
-614
-1,000
-786
-96
-882
-824
-966
-218
-1,042
-395
-1,361
-1,500
-1,087
-582
-1,668
-2,000
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
Source: NCVO, Counting the Cuts, May 2013
2015/16
2016/17
2017/18

8. Conclusions
• In 2011/12 the total value of VCS contracts in the City fell
more slowly than in the rest of England.
• In 2011/12 for Leicestershire, the decrease in the grants
budget was higher, while the decrease in the grants
budget was lower than average.
• Total income of the sector in both Leicester and
Leicestershire seems to have grown more rapidly over
the last 10 years, but subsequently contracted more
sharply than the rest of the country.
• By the end of the 2013/14 financial year, around 60% of
the total reduction in Local Authority spending will have
occurred… so austerity is here to stay…