Charities warn of ‘devastating knock-on impact’ of English councils’ financial crisis

Exclusive: Local voluntary groups forced to cut services or close as council funding pulled

• When a Citizens Advice has to close despite demand being ‘off the scale’

Charity leaders have warned of the “devastating knock-on impact” of the financial crisis in English town halls, as evidence emerges of cuts and closures at local voluntary groups, where vital grant funding has been cut by stricken councils.

Citizens Advice and Age UK – two of the UK’s biggest and best known charities, overseeing networks of hundreds of local branches providing vital care, advice and support to millions of people every year – said it was “deeply troubling” that the crisis was putting voluntary services at risk.

The closure of Mansfield Citizens Advice after Mansfield district council cut its £55,000 core costs grant. Based in one of England’s most deprived areas, the charity helped 2,400 people last year with debt, housing and poverty issues. Citizens Advice Woking, in Surrey, also faces closure after bankrupt Woking borough council cancelled its £180,000 grant.

Community First bus services linking communities in rural Hampshire are under threat after Hampshire county council, which faces a £132m deficit over the next two years, cut funding by £500,000. It has also scrapped a £500,000 grant that funds volunteer support and legal backup for more than 650 local grassroots charities.

Neighbourhood charities in Birmingham have warned that thousands of children are at risk as a result of proposals by the bankrupt city council to cut an £8m early help contract providing safety net services to thousands of families struggling with poverty, mental illness and addiction.