At Wednesday’s coronavirus briefing, Chancellor Rishi Sunak turned his attention (and the Treasury’s coffers) to the charity sector, which will receive £750 million to support vital services for the community. The money will be divided between small, local charities working with vulnerable people and charities that provide ‘essential services,’ with Sunak citing St John Ambulance and the Citizens Advice bureau as two examples of potential beneficiaries.
The support comes as organisations like Cancer Research announced in recent days that they would have to scale back their medical research due to a projected drop in donations on which they rely to keep their services going. This pot will be intended to plug such funding drains, though the Chancellor emphasised that the government could not be expected to ‘match every pound’ of funding. As the scheme is targeted towards charities that have staff engaged in frontline services, not all charity applicants are likely to be treated equally – those that aren’t eligible will have to continue to rely on nationwide policies like the job retentions scheme to keep their organisations going.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in