Cuts to the third sector

摘要

The scale of spending reductions to local govern-ment and the way they are front-loaded means not only cuts to frontline services but also cuts to whatever can easily yield immediate sav-ings in time for the 2011 /12 financial year.This is almost certainly neither sensible nor strategic but, in the short time-frame between the grant settlement in December and the new year in April, there is little else.Inevitably, the voluntary sector has been hit, but some of these groups seem to live in another world where the budget deficit passes them by, leaving their funding untouched. They are part of the public sector and the public sector is being cut, irrespec-tive of fairness. As The MJ's front page story shows, cutting all managers' salaries and back offices would still not avoid the need to cut frontline services.