This week, three government funds targeted at social enterprises have had their budgets cut as part of the Coalition’s cost cutting drive. Minister for civil society Nick Hurd and cabinet office minister Francis Maude today announced £11m is to be cut from the Office for Civil Society (OCS) budget as part of the government’s £6.2bn cuts target, and have published an open letter to the sector asking for help reaching the 6.2bn target (the ‘savings challenge’). Peter Holbrook, CEO of the Social Enterprise Coalition has welcomed this challenge to the sector, pointing out the role social enterprises can play in public service delivery. The cuts include taking £111,000 from the Social Enterprise Action Research programme, which was originally set up with £1.3m to support different government departments researching social enterprise solutions to policy problems.
To read more about the cuts, go to Social Enterprise Live.
