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Large voluntary organisations need to give more support to smaller community organisations rather than compete with them, local government minister David Miliband said this week.

Outlining his vision of a "double devolution" of power from central to local government through to communities, Miliband said service delivery should be open to smaller organisations as well as larger ones.

"Small organisations live a more perilous existence," he told the annual conference of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. "We must find a way of supporting organisations whose value to society cannot be easily measured by targets or defined in contracts."

Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, said small organisations had been hit hardest by the fall in voluntary sector income.