Local outrage at Highland Council’s decision to close the public conveniences in Arisaig village at the height of the summer season has resulted in Arisaig Community Trust taking on the responsibility to keep them open, as from July 1st.

Arisaig, Caol and Kinlochleven were the Lochaber loos set for closure at the end of June, together with a further ten Highland-wide. The shock decision by Highland Council gave very little time for alternative solutions to be put into place but the directors of Arisaig Community Trust were up for the challenge and have spent the last two months in discussion with the Council.

Chair Ann Martin said ‘Although we will be in receipt of an annual sum of over £3000 Highland Comfort Scheme grant, we have done our sums and the running costs will be well over £6000 a year. We need to do a lot of local fundraising but we’re sure Arisaig residents will support us in keeping this essential service open. This is absolutely what the Trust was set up to do – to save a local service from closure. Although it’s been a difficult couple of months with a lot of hard work put in by the directors, we never had any doubt about taking them on. They are the first public toilets travellers come across after leaving Fort William and are very well used by bus trippers, lorry drivers and boat users as well as car passengers – and locals. To close them would have been crazy.

‘The Trust is running the loos under a temporary licence from the Council while a contract for sale is drawn up. We will buy the building for £1 but overheads are heavy – supplies, paying a cleaner, insurance, rates, electricity, repairs – and we are hoping the Council will do some work on them to improve their standard before we buy.’ The Trust’s first fundraiser will be to serve refreshments in the Astley Hall on Friday July 29th.

Other public conveniences across the region are set for closure next year.

Saluting the past, building civic pride

11 Aug 2011

It has taken 70 years to happen – but a special tribute will finally be unveiled to five brave Scots volunteers who fought against fascism. Later this month the valour of a group of men from Dunbartonshire will be honoured at the unveiling of a statue.

The five, from Renton, made their way to Spain to join the International Brigades to combat General Franco’s fascist uprising against the country’s elected Republican government. The heroic efforts of brothers Patrick Joseph, Tommy and Daniel Gibbons, along with James Arnott and Patrick Curley are to be recognised at a special ceremony on August 27 when an iron statue in the shape of a Spanish bull will be unveiled in their home town.

Danny was wounded in the Battle of Jamara in February 1937, and was allowed to return home – but he made his way back to Spain again, distressed that his brother Tommy had been killed in the battle for Brunete in July that same year. He was eventually captured by Franco’s troops at the battle of Calaceite in March 1938. Kept in filthy conditions in a concentration camp, he and a handful of others secretly combined to keep up the morale of their fellow prisoners.

They were eventually exchanged, in February 1939, for Italian and German prisoners. Patrick Joseph – ‘Joe’ – the third brother, who volunteered as part of a Chicago-based battalion in Spain, was on a Barcelona-based ship that was torpedoed by an Italian submarine.

Two hundred other volunteers were lost at sea, but Joe bravely kept two colleagues, neither of whom could swim, afloat for hours in the water until they could all be rescued. He went on to fight the fascists in numerous battles during the Civil War. He was wounded in the arm after a tank belonging to the fascist forces opened fire.

Of the Renton five, James Arnott was repatriated and Patrick Curley was killed at Jarama – the same battle in which Danny Gibbons was wounded.

The statue, which will be sited at the MA Centre in Renton, is the idea of the Renton Community Development Trust.

We were investigating the history of Renton and came across the Gibbons family – three brothers who fought in Spain  Drew McEwan, the Trust’s chief executive, who with Archie Thomson and Jim Bollan, a Scottish Socialist councillor, has co-authored a booklet detailing local involvement in the Spanish Civil War, said:

“Renton has had an interesting political history – we are still the only area that has returned a Scottish Socialist councillor. Long before then, we used to return two Communist councillors on a yearly basis. We were investigating the history of Renton and came across the Gibbons family – three brothers who fought in Spain. There was even a fourth brother, John, who was keen to fight but was refused entry to the International Brigade in Spain. We did further research and came across James Arnott then Partick Curley, both from Renton.”

“Scots made up about 20% of the Britons who volunteered for the International Brigades in Spain, and 31 came from west Dunbartonshire, including the five from Renton, and another 11 from Alexandria. Others came from Clydebank, Dumbarton, Duntocher and Dalmuir. It wasn’t young and impressionable men who volunteered, either,” Drew added.

“Danny Gibbons was 35 and brother Tommy was 34. James Arnott was 29 and Patrick Curley was 47.

“The chances are that many had experienced the First World War, which is still seen as one of the most barbaric wars ever conducted. It wasn’t as if they went out to Spain with blinkers on, thinking it would be a romantic experience – that they would go out there for a couple of weeks and come back with a suntan. They knew what they were getting into.”

“It has been really interesting to do research into this aspect of local history. Bear in mind that some of these men left this area and walked over the Pyrenees to join a war, which is just a remarkable feat. What also can’t be forgotten is that desperate pleas by the Spanish Republican government for assistance from the European democracies of Britain and France fell, overwhelmingly, on deaf ears. Instead, an agreement was made not to intervene in the conflict, to which Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the USSR all agreed to adhere.”

“You could get prosecuted for taking part – it was illegal to fight. It wasn’t just that you got a bad name. Volunteers who returned from Spain would come back to nothing. These men never got the accolades they deserved. Whether people agreed or disagreed with the war doesn’t matter – they showed considerable valour in Spain in the fight against fascism.”

The memorial, which has cost an estimated £2000, will commemorate the bravery of all the local volunteers.

“Hopefully it will last for all time, and will be seen as a fitting tribute to the men who wanted to fight the rise of fascism,” added Drew.

Author: Dominic Jeff, Scotland on Sunday

Spread the jam more widely

By Dominic Jeff, Scotland on Sunday, 21 August 2011

GLASGOW energy firm EML Group is seeking to capitalise on the boom in community wind projects across Scotland with a part-ownership scheme that offers towns and villages a slice of the profits from turbines in their area. The company is offering community groups access to 100 per cent finance to take a share in small wind turbine arrays it plans to build. It says this allows communities to take part in energy projects without any risk or capital outlay.

EML estimates that trusts set up to take part in a project will receive an annual windfall of up to £150,000 for the first 15 years of the 25-year project, with income increasing thereafter. 

One village, Thornhill in Stirlingshire, has already signed up, and EML claims a further ten communities could follow suit.

The Thornhill development would consist of four 500-kilowatt turbines with ownership split between the landowner, EML, external investors and Thornhill Community Trust.

The scheme is currently seeking planning permission – something which is likely to prove less of an obstacle with support from the local population.

Community Energy Scotland, a charity that supports renewable energy projects developed by local groups, promotes a 100 per cent model of ownership by towns and villages, but operations manager

Rona Mackay said energy companies were increasingly offering a stake in their wind farms.
She said schemes with community involvement typically attracted much less opposition than those which only involved a commercial company based outside the area.

She said: “Communities have been saying ‘If it’s going to be on our doorstep, we want a cut of it. A lot of developers see the advantage of local buy-ins, because there are skills and knowledge that can be tapped into.”

Mackay said that in areas with a strong wind resource, such as the Western Isles, it was relatively easy for groups to get 100 per cent finance for the projects, as wind turbines generated a dependable income.  She said about 150 such schemes were in existence across Scotland, although most were still at a planning stage.

Steve Moore, a renewable energy expert with Triodos Bank, said that many wind energy companies were introducing “good neighbour policies” in response to demand from planners that communities see some benefits from developments.

Community retailers – a growth sector

Community-owned shops in Scotland are set to receive a boost with the announcement of a new three-year funding package for their support organisation, the Community Retailing Network (CRN).

The package is made up of £82,100 from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, £36,000 from Highlands & Islands Enterprise and £15,000 from The Co-operative Group.

There are currently 21 community-owned shops across Scotland and a furthereight under development. CRN co-ordinator Kirsty MacColl said:

“We are getting new enquiries almost every week. More and more communities see this model as an alternative to losing their local shop and services.

“The local shop is what holds a community together and keeps it going. This funding will allow us to promote community ownership more widely and signpost the practical support that is available for both new and existing shops.”

Success stories in rural Scotland

For further information please contact Kirsty MacColl, tel. 0845 217 8978, email info@communityretailing.co.uk.

The Northern Periphery Programme “Retail in Rural Regions”, which has been running since 2009, is now moving towards its conclusion with a Dissemination Seminar in Inverness on 8 September 2011 and a Final Conference in Iceland in November 2011.

A small delegation will attend the Final Conference which will include a spotlight on a number of “Success stories” from the Partner Countries involved – Finland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Faroe Islands, Norway, Greenland and Scotland.

The “Success Story” from Scotland will be presented by Elaine Newton, who is the Manager of the Uig Community Co-operative, situated at Timsgarry, Uig, Lewis.

Many similar success stories of community-owned stores serving local communities exist in Shetland, Orkney, Western Isles and other parts of rural Scotland.

The Project has included study visits to Partner countries, piloting an innovative training programme using videoconferencing and the developing a “Retail in Rural Regions” model for future support of rural retailers.

The Scottish Partner has been the Community Retailing Network, which provides support and training for community-owned stores throughout Scotland.

A Dissemination Seminar to disseminate the results of the Project will be held in Inverness on Thursday 8 September 2011 and will include presentations on : the Merkur Project in Norway, which provides development support, training and funding for rural retailers in Norway, support offered to rural stores in England & Wales by the Plunkett Foundation and the proposed Highlands & Islands Skillshop Retail Project

All of these activities will demonstrate the benefits that the Project has provided for a number of community-owned rural retailers in Scotland and the lessons learnt from EU Partners facing similar challenges in their own rural areas – supporting the viability and sustainability of rural stores which play an important role in local economic and social development

For further information please contact Kirsty MacColl, tel. 0845 217 8978, email info@communityretailing.co.uk.

Why some recover faster than others

Community Resilience – a handbook based on global experience

The Fiery Spirits Community of Practice has launched a new handbook packed with inspiring stories about how communities are preparing for and coping through difficult times.  Beginning with Cumbria’s experience from the floods of November 2009, the book takes the reader on a journey from remote Scottish communities to inner city London, and from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to Ireland after the credit crunch.

The book Exploring Community Resilience is produced by a network of community activists, professionals and policy makers which is supported by Carnegie UK Trust. The network is run by its members who use the website www.fieryspirits.com and face-to-face events to support each other building more resilient, vibrant communities.  At its heart is a new framework for understanding community resilience, presented as a ‘compass’ to navigate the topic, while challenging communities to examine whether they have covered all the points they need to on the compass.
Carnegie UK Trust Chief Executive, Martyn Evans, says this is a practical guide to help bring the issue out of theory into practice:
“Exploring Community Resilience is about inspiring communities across the UK and Ireland – and beyond – to plan for their futures.  It is about seeing how people and businesses can work together to improve their chances of coping with challenges that might otherwise damage their economy, their environment and the wellbeing of their people. The handbook offers practical approaches based on real experience.”
The book was written through an actively collaboration of contributors with real-world experience of weathering storms who came together through workshops and online.  It sets out to introduce and translates for a lay audience some of the most useful academic insights into resilience, weaving in current and recent media stories to open a discussion about the bigger policy implications of resilience thinking.
Exploring Community Resilience mixes strong design with illustrated case studies and web links to live projects while also offering materials for a workshop that people can use to make sense of ‘community resilience’ in their own context.

About the Book
Exploring Community Resilience

· is packed with and based on the real-life experience of community resilience pioneers – who actively collaborated in the writing of the document through workshops and online

· introduces and translates for a lay audience some of the most useful academic insights into resilience available

· weaves in current and recent media stories to open a discussion about the bigger policy implications of resilience thinking, and

· is beautifully designed and presented, with illustrations, pictures, ‘live’ web links and even a workshop that people in communities can use to make sense of ‘community resilience’ in their own context

Reviewers have said

·        Lively, easy to understand and packed with useful metaphors and practical tools for applying resilience thinking  Community activist (Scotland)

·        The compass model is very useable … really beneficial in my work supporting local community leaders Community development worker (Ireland)

·        Brings home different aspects of resilience … the section on resilience and creativity is inspiring! Social entrepreneur (England)

·        Inspiring stories that make the theory come alive – and a theoretical framework that makes sense of the stories  Sustainability Academic (Wales)

·         Why some recover faster than others

·        I love the ‘commitment to bringing people together who didn’t know they needed to meet’ – it’s the guiding principle for the handbook  Foundation professional (England)

The book is available free of charge for online viewing at www.fieryspirits.com – and a limited number of printed copies are available to purchase from the same link for £12.50 (inc. p&p).

For more information, contact nick@carnegieuk.org – and follow updates on twitter @comresilience

A poverty of leadership

When Theresa May went on radio to say what she would do about the riots, she never mentioned any local name, or civic leadership of any kind.

Outsiders witnessing the urban riots this week could be forgiven for assuming that Britain’s cities were now run by the police and the home secretary. There may be municipal councils and in London an elected mayor, but they are nowhere to be seen to be in control. They have no real power and therefore little or no public status as civic leaders. At the front line are the police, and behind them only the central power of the state.

The “nationalisation” of the riots by the home secretary and the prime minister inevitably inclined government to overreact. Ministers and opposition leaders raced back from holiday, parliament was summoned and sports fixtures cancelled. If ministers had wanted to induce a sense of panic, they could hardly have done better. Yet below them is only a vacuum of authority and accountability.

In New York or Berlin or Barcelona we would have seen command taken by powerful mayors, and indeed subordinate mayors and precinct captains for subdivisions of the city. They regularly summon gangs and community leaders and knock heads together. When the home secretary, Theresa May, went on radio this to say what she would do about the riots, she never mentioned any local name, or civic leadership of any sort.

She certainly failed to name London’s high-profile but low-octane Boris Johnson, who is closest to having responsibility for policing the capital. She was clearly the boss and had no intention of sharing her status or authority. In the nicest possible sense, Britain presented itself to the world as a police state.

The riots shared with this week’s other big story – the renewed economic slump – the quality of being ostensibly inexplicable. The catalyst was a march to protest another instance of the wild use of firearms by London’s police. But this was a mere excuse. No one has been able to divine what the riots were “about”, beyond a chance for increasingly powerful street gangs to play hell, and grab a quantity of merchandise.

Comment abhors banality and the smashed windows and fires that consumed a few London streets have had to be awarded deeper significance. London’s Burning, cried the headlines. It was anarchy, yob rule. The increasingly tabloid BBC compared Croydon with Belfast’s Falls Road, taunting the government to bring in troops, so as to make it seem weak for not doing so. The parallel drawn between a fractured Irish community and London’s suburban opportunists was hyperbole and media hysteria.

Reporters who have covered England’s history of street disturbances recite the familiar grievances: poor housing, sink schools, drugs, weapons, gangs. While these phenomena may explain many forms of crime, my attendance at some of these occasions made me aware of the sheer momentum of a mob sensing a licence for an orgy of destructive mischief. It is sheer urban machismo.

In New York and Chicago, remarkably free of riots, the reason for order is customarily put down to the dominance of local political control, to the precincts described by Barack Obama in his memoir as forming a curb on the gang culture. Parents, neighbours or businesses in trouble turn not to the police but to elected or self-appointed community leaders for redress. Such neighbourhoods police themselves, often very effectively.

Similarly while some European cities have had riot trouble, notably the suburbs of Paris, most are run under a regime of strong civic leadership. Whatever happens – a crash, a murder, a celebration – some locally elected leader steps forward to embody the locality..

At a time of crisis the TV stage is taken by a police officer and central government minister. Councils are run by enfeebled party machines and their “leaders” are politicians whose means of selection and election gives first loyalty to party rather than community. They feel no obligation to public leadership. Suggest to a council leader that he stand for direct election without the carapace of party, and he shudders at the thought. These figureheads are mere agents, factotums, of central government. The only local elected politicians noticeable this week were MPs such as David Lammy and Diane Abbott; but they are national parliamentarians who have become de facto local mayors to their constituents.

The hapless head of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Kit Malthouse, is supposedly in charge of London’s constabulary. He has been totally upstaged by May and now by David Cameron himself. They met in Cobra committee, with the palpable intention of delving into the details of operational riot control. This is not lawful. Operational matters are strictly for the London police commissioner, with the mayor and police authority having absolute responsibility for resources.

In the next few days the rioters will go home to count their winnings and a few will go to prison with magisterial bromides falling about their ears. Gang leaders, their street status vastly enhanced, will reflect on their successful grabbing of videos and headlines alike. The poor of urban England will clear up the mess. The right will deplore the “sheer criminality” of it all, and the left will explain it as the misguided manifestation of social grievance.

I am left more convinced than ever that urban communities cannot be ordered and disciplined by the police alone. No police force can handle not just crime but traffic control, antisocial behaviour, school truancy, gun licensing, paedophile registers, illegal immigration and housing fraud. It cannot hope to keep order on every street, protect every business and settle every domestic dispute. But then nor can Whitehall-ordained public services, now retreating ever further into centralised bureaucracy. Nor can “big society” charities, losing money and lacking accountability.

There is no substitute for proper, open, responsive democracy at any tier of government. There can be no localism without some discretion over taxation and resources. There can be no big society without a vote. Curing any community’s woes is not the job of the police. Leave it to them and trouble will simply recur.

Charting the history

Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and CBS Network are delighted to report that a special collection on social enterprise has now been handed over to the GCU library. The collectionincludes archive papers and documents on Community Development, Community Enterprise,

Social Enterprise and Social Accounting and Audit which have been assembled by John Pearce throughout his working life. To these have been added the Community Business Scotland archive of papers and reports from 1981 onwards.

For the past thirty five years John has played an inspiring and pivotal role at the heart of the community and social enterprise movements in Scotland. His retirement has provided a unique opportunity to create this Social Enterprise Collection (Scotland) at GCU.

The field of this collection is wide. It ranges from the early Scottish roots of community business in the urban west of Scotland to the establishment of development units throughout the former regions; from the founding of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition to the spread of self-help structures for evaluation and reporting on social, economic and environmental performance; and from the Community Co-operatives in the Highlands and Islands to community economic development projects in India.

The collection ties in with the new Masters in Social Enterprise course being run at GCU in partnership with the Social Enterprise Academy. It also has clear and useful cross-sectoral links to related fields of interest. Once catalogued, it is planned to make it more widely accessible, beyond university users.

The next step is for CBS Network and GCU to work together to attract funding for an archivist to sort and catalogue the collection. An initial sum of £30,000 will be sufficient to jump start this work.

The two organisations are now keen to attract further papers and documents that will contribute to this becoming the leading reference point for the history and future development of policy and practice in social enterprise in Scotland and beyond.

For more information contact Alan Tuffs 01506 87 33 55 or alan.tuffs@btinternet.com 9th August 2011

Communities in high density, deprived urban areas in Scotland are one step closer to developing more sustainable renewable energy sources locally. Community Energy Scotland has secured just over £400,000 from the Scottish Government to assist such communities cover feasibility and capital installation costs and address fuel poverty issues.

Such small communities do not find it easy to secure loans to install for example solar water heating in social housing or homeless hostels. Even energy efficiency audits and feasibility studies are difficult to find funding for in these areas most in need of support.

Community Energy Scotland has been assisting over 800 communities throughout Scotland in such projects through a grant system now replaced with the Community and Renewable Energy Loan Scheme. CES already have assisted urban projects but realised that many deprived areas would not now be able to take advantage of the new system. Securing over £400,000 from the Scottish Government and putting an urban Development Officer, Ruth Evans, in place will drive new energy into these communities.

For further information, contact Ruth.Evans@communityenergyscotland.org.uk

Author: TFN

COMMUNITY campaigners have backed the Scottish Government’s bid for full devolution of Scotland’s Crown Estate land following a Treasury announcement of a new lottery fund based on the revenue.  Critics have described the move as a “red herring” claiming that it distracts from the real issue of ensuring that Scottish communities fully benefit from Crown Estate land and sea.

Chief secretary of the Treasury Danny Alexander announced last week that 50 per cent of the revenue from Scotland’s Crown Estate marine activities would be put into a new fund run by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland. The fund will start off with £1.85m a year for the Highlands and Islands and £2.05m for the rest of Scotland.

However, this week the Big Lottery Fund Scotland was unable to explain how the money would be distributed or even whether the Scottish or UK committees would make that decision. And community campaigners said that the Scottish people deserved to benefit much more from activities on the Crown Estate, which are predicted to rocket as the Scottish Government aims to turn Scotland into a renewable energy leader with the development of offshore windfarms.

Angus Hardie, Scottish Community Alliance director, said: “This decision to allocate some of revenues from the Crown Estate to communities is a bit of a red herring. The real issue is about where control and accountability sits for what happens to Scotland’s Crown Estate.

“There just seems no logical argument in support of the current arrangement which allows a remote London based property management company – Crown Estate Commissioners – to make crucial decisions about what happens around Scotland’s coastal waters.

“If responsibility were to lie with the Scottish Parliament then at least we could have a more open and transparent debate about how any  revenues should be allocated and whether coastal communities – those most affected – should get more. “

The move has also been criticised for pre-empting an investigation by the Westminster Scottish Affairs committee, which is currently collecting evidence on how Crown Estate revenues could be best used to the benefit of local communities in Scotland.

A report expected to be published later in the year.

David Cameron, chairman of Community Land Scotland, which represents Scotland’s community land owners including many coastal communities, said: “For decades the Crown Estate has been criticised for taking a lot of revenue, but giving little back. I hope the important precedent that at least half of the marine revenues going to coastal communities can be built on in future.

“How the fund is administered, together with the detailed criteria will be crucial.

“However, the Crown Estate is in need of much wider reform and, important though today’s announcement is, it should not distract from that reform agenda. We will be giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee in September on some of the other reforms of the Crown Estate we would like to see.”

A spokesman for the Big Lottery Fund this week could not give details of how this new coastal community fund would operate, stating: “We can confirm that we are in discussions with the Treasury about the best way such a fund could be delivered.”

Following the announcement last week, Richard Lochhead, Scottish Government cabinet secretary for rural affairs and the environment, said: “It is good that the UK Government has finally woken up to these demands – however this measure does not go nearly far enough. Scotland should benefit from 100 per cent of Crown Estate revenues, not 50 per cent.

“Full devolution of the Crown Estate would give the people of Scotland a say in how public assets are used, rather than leaving decisions to the unelected commissioners who manage the Crown Estate.”

Author: Brian Donnelly, The Herald

SCOTTISH charities could lose up to £200 million in public funding from Holyrood over the next four years as a result of the UK Government’s austerity measures, it has been claimed.

The umbrella body for voluntary organisations in Scotland warned the Scottish Government that if it passes on cuts at the level intended at Westminster, good causes could suffer an 11% drop in income.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) made the comments after its counterpart in England, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, produced a report claiming UK charities stood to lose nearly £3 billion over four years under the Coalition Government’s Big Society plans.

SCVO director of public affairs John Downie said its estimates of the impact are “even more dramatic” than predicted by the NCVO. He said its report only looks at funding to the charity sector through the Scotland Office, and cuts to the Scottish block grant, estimated at 11% over the spending review period, are “much greater cause for concern”.

“If the Scottish Government were to pass that on to charities and voluntary organisations, the sector could lose as much as £200 million, leaving thousands of vulnerable people without the vital lifelines they rely on,” he said.

Mr Downie said there was concern over funding for charities at a time of widespread public-sector cuts. 

But he added: “We are confident, however, that the Scottish Government will not pass on a cut of anywhere near this size but will continue to invest in the third sector, to ensure it can increase its economic contribution, have a stronger presence in delivering public services and to use its expertise in employ-ability to create opportunities for our young people.”

Scotland’s voluntary sector has a turnover of £4.4 billion, 42% (£1.8bn) of which comes from central and local government.

Yesterday’s report came as research by the trade union-funded anti-cuts campaign False Economy suggested more than 2000 charities are having to close services and pay off staff as local authorities slash their funding.

False Economy’s director Clifford Singer said: “The idea that charities could step up and replace much of the work previously done by the public sector always looked dubious, but this latest research underlines that far from growing, the charity sector is actually shrinking.

“Never has the gap between the Government’s Big Society rhetoric and the reality of its savage cuts looked starker.”

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell said: “What is becoming apparent is the scale of the cuts that charities are facing across the country, which are beginning to undermine the very building blocks of community life. It beggars belief that the Tory-led government still do not have a complete picture of the impact that their actions will have.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Big Society offers the voluntary sector many new opportunities to grow.

“Our reforms will allow the voluntary sector to bid for public-service contracts worth billions of pounds.

“Just last week Big Society Capital launched with an expected £600m to give the sector access to much-needed finance, which will help it expand and bid for these new contracts. We’re also doing more to support giving and philanthropy, including measures in the Budget.”

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “[False Economy’s] authoritative research shows that for all the warm words about the Big Society, the Government has created a funding crisis for charities, with many scaling back or cutting services altogether.”

The NCVO used figures from the Government’s spending plans produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility to calculate what they believe is the first accurate estimate of the impact of the austerity programme on charities.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We recognise the important contribution the third sector makes to supporting our economic recovery, creating employment and skills opportunities as well improving public services and supporting communities.

“We are committed to continuing to support the sector and that’s why the core budget was increased by 16% in 2011/12 to £24m despite cuts from Westminster. This builds on the £91m which we have already invested in the third sector since 2008.”