16th January 2007, CSR (Comprehensive Spending Review),

In July/August of last year I forwarded details of a sub-regional consultation event to be held at Bulwell Hall Healthy Living Centre, as part of the first consultation phase of the CSR (Comprehensive Spending Review), on the future role of the third sector on social and economic regeneration.

This event was part of the largest ever consultation by the Government with the third sector - a total of nine regional and 84 sub-regional consultation events - and the interim report has now been published.

In his Pre Budget Report, the Chancellor set out the findings from the consultation, and as an early response to the issues raised during the consultation, and announced:
• a commitment from Government to see three-year funding settlements passed to third sector organisations as the norm rather than the exception.
• a community assets fund of £30m to enable communities and community groups to take on the management and ownership of assets.
• allocation of an extra £6.5 million within the Safer and Stronger Communities fund in Local Area Agreements, with a focus on building the capacity of local community groups and to help strengthen the voice of the local third sector.

Thank you to those of you that attended the event and helped bring the above about.

Also, to everyone that receives this information, there is still much to do to ensure that VCS and especially BME organisations actually receive the stated support and I would ask that people continue to attend events when asked for such support and voice your opinions freely.

Parul Jani
Strategic Liaison Officer - Indian Community