How do cuts in Leicester and Leicestershire compare to the

national picture?

Pete Bass, Research Associate, NCVOhttp://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk

A more detailed version of these slides is available at: http://goo.gl/h5BlrE

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?

Asking local authorities through FOI requests….

  Grants (2010/11 to 2011/12)

Contracts(2010/11 to 2011/12)

Leicester Not supplied

??

Fell from £20.9m to £20.7mA decrease of 1.1%LOWER THAN AVERAGE

Leicestershire Reduced from £1.8m to £1.6m, a 12% cutHIGHER THAN AVERAGE

Fell from fell from £19.3m to £17.6m by 8.7%LOWER THAN AVERAGE

Rest of England 197 LAs provided figures for both years, total budget reduced from £153.4m to £141.8m, a fall of 7.5%

166 LAs provided figuresContracts fell from £525.0m to £468.0m A fall of 10.8%

Source: Compact Voice, FOI requests http://www.compactvoice.org.uk/foi2012

• 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…

Local surveys of voluntary groups….

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%

The Voluntary sector in Leicester, Leicestershire and the rest of England:

Cumulative growth in total income since 2000-01 (%)20

00-0

1

2001

-02

2002

-03

2003

-04

2004

-05

2005

-06

2006

-07

2007

-08

2008

-09

2009

-10

2010

-11

2011

-12

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Leicester Leicestershire Rest of England

Source: Analysis of Charity Commission register for VAL, Sep 2013NB: Indexed, Cumulative % change since 2001, adjusted for inflation using RPIX.

%

Austerity – how far have we got to go?

2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18-2,000

-1,500

-1,000

-500

0

500

-362-643 -672 -786 -824 -966 -1,087

-34

40 58

-96-218

-395-582

Local GovernmentCentral Government

Chan

ge fr

om 2

010/

11 (£

mill

ions

)

-1,042

-1,668

-603 -614

-882

-1,361

-396

Source: NCVO, Counting the Cuts, May 2013

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…