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Funding shake-up 'to sideline groups' Voluntary sector representatives have warned they will be shut out of local decision-making by the transfer to councils of government funding to develop the sector.

Delegates at a regeneration conference this week said councils might not continue the work of the single community programme.

Cash from the programme now goes directly to voluntary community empowerment networks to build capacity in the sector and improve its participation in local strategic partnerships (LSPs). But from next year it will be included in a wider Safer and Stronger Communities Fund, paid to councils as part of a performance agreement between authorities, their LSPs and government.


From 2007 every locality will have a broader local area agreement, incorporating the fund.

Sarah Ruiz, of Newham Voluntary Sector Consortium, said: "The brave decision of giving communities their own money is being taken away."

Georgie Constable, director of Plymouth Community Partnership, said, in pilots, community safety elements had been prioritised over capacity building.


Urban Forum chief executive Toby Blume said the new fund would work well in areas where the sector was engaged in LSPs. But he added: "In areas where people are less signed up to community involvement things may be lost."

Director of operations at the government's Neighbourhood Renewal Unit Alan Riddell said: "It's going to be difficult to make your mark and influence things."