Plea to MPs to help prevent higher demand and reduced budgets harming voluntary groups and disadvantaged people.
The vice-chair of trustees at Citizens Advice Reigate & Banstead has written to local MPs asking them to do whatever possible to persuade the government to raise the provisional budget settlement allocated to Surrey County Council.
Richard Hoffman says unless something is done to mitigate the settlement there will be serious consequences for voluntary groups :
i) Problems faced by disadvantaged people are likely to increase, leading to:
ii) More demand for voluntary group services, when
iii) Their funding is also being cut.
The timing is good. On Tuesday (9 February) the council meets to approve a no-holds-barred report on its revenue and capital budget 2016-17 to 2020-21. In summary: without significant change the budget would be “unsustainable”. This is down to “considerable ‘shock’ in the Provisional Settlement figures over those that were reasonably expected”.
Mr Hoffman points to potential “lasting damage” to Citizens Advice in Surrey. And he draws the MPs’ attention to the particular problems of Citizens Advice Reigate & Banstead which is one of the most deprived parts of the county.
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