Charities chief warns over cuts

Dame Suzi Leather says poorer areas could suffer the most as a result of the cuts

The government’s spending cuts could cost voluntary organisations billions of pounds, the charities’ regulator in England and Wales has warned.

Charity Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather said cutting funding to charities that were providing key public services would be short sighted.

She told BBC One’s Politics Show that it threatened to undermine the prime minister’s Big Society project.

The Cabinet Office said it would help charities with funding shortfalls.

Many of the 160,000 organisations the Charities Commission oversees provide key services for councils and rely on local authorities for funding.

Dame Suzi warned that a cut in the amount of money going to children’s services could mean more young people from deprived backgrounds ending up in police stations and the criminal justice system, presenting the taxpayer with an even bigger bill.

She also said poorer areas relied more heavily on the taxpayer and could suffer most.

Dame Suzi feared that up to £5bn could be cut from charities which would “pull the rug” from under Mr Cameron’s Big Society idea.

In a statement to the BBC, the Cabinet Office said it recognised the cuts would be challenging for some voluntary organisations, and it would work quickly to start a £100m short-term fund to help charities with funding shortfalls.

In a No 10 podcast, Mr Cameron said the UK faced a “hard road” but he did not “underestimate how difficult this would be”.

The prime minister said drastic action was essential to cut the economic deficit.

He said: “We didn’t just do the right thing, we did it the right way. We’ve gone about these spending cuts in a way that is fair and in a way that promotes economic growth and new jobs.”

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