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Government policy and funding round-up: October 2022

In our latest government policy and funding round-up, we explore rising costs for charities and volunteers, the government’s mini-budget and its implications for energy bills. For news related to what’s happening in parliament, see our regular inside track round-up.

Round-ups

13 October, 2022

Government and politics
Funding and income

Mini-budget

On 23 September in the face of a rapidly escalating cost of living crisis, the Chancellor delivered a ‘mini-budget’. We shared both our initial reaction and more detailed analysis on what the mini-budget means for charities and volunteers.

Disappointingly, outside of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, this budget announced little in the way of support for people and communities, or to address the root causes of rising costs. A further budget is now expected on 31st October 2022.

See the ‘mini-budget’ here

Energy Bill Relief Scheme

The government announced that businesses, charities and other non-domestic energy users will be supported through a new Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This runs alongside the Energy Price Guarantee, for individual consumers.

While this relief will be welcome for many charities, it will still represent an increase of 27% on bills from last year. The scheme will only run for six months and will be reviewed after three.

We encourage members to collect evidence of energy costs and the impact on your ability to deliver services, to be prepared to respond to any requests from government to inform this review.

Read our Trusted Supplier Utility Aid on the implications for charities

Collecting evidence on cost of living

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the UK government is running a survey on the impact of the cost of energy bills on businesses and organisations. If you would like to contribute on behalf of your charity or voluntary organisation, please complete the survey by the deadline of 24 October.

The more evidence we can collect on the impact of the crisis, the better able we are to make the case for members in our policy and influencing work. This evidence may also be crucial for the review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.

Complete the government's survey

Procurement

The procurement bill is still making its way through parliament. Given the recent political upheaval, and the break for party conferences, progress has not been made since before the summer recess.

It is possible that the new administration may want to make significant changes to the bill, which already had several hundred amendments submitted. We will continue to work with other charities to influence the bill, and will update members on any future developments.

Our Policy and Insight Manager on the procurement bill

Banking

We are meeting regularly with UK Finance, the membership body for the banking sector, to talk about banking challenges facing the voluntary sector and consider possible solutions.

We are also continuing to work with sister councils, Charity Finance Group, NAVCA, Action for Communities in Rural England (ACRE), and others to improve the availability and suitability of banking services for voluntary organisations.

See our guidance on banking and investment

Dormant assets

Dormant assets are financial products that haven’t been accessed for a long time and are unlikely to be in the future. We responded to a government consultation which closed on 9 October, on how these assets should be distributed.

We are part of the Community Wealth Fund Alliance and back the calls to create a long-term fund to support areas most lacking in social infrastructure and investment. We also want to see funding for social investment to make finance more accessible, and a Youth Potential Fund developed.

You can find out more about what we called for and why, here

Helping you to make a difference

We know that the next few months will be really difficult for many of our members and volunteers. We've created a hub on our website of all our help, guidance and news on the cost of living crisis.

Please get in touch with us if you would like to share more detailed information or a case study on the impact of the crisis so far. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how the crisis might impact your costs, your workforce and your volunteers.

Read our cost of living guidance

Round-ups

13 October, 2022

Government and politics
Funding and income

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Government policy and funding round-up: October 2022

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