'Every community in Glasgow could be harmed': Over 100 charities and groups could be rejected from lifeline funding

In documents leaked to the Glasgow Times, council officials have recommended to knock back a total of 134 local charities, resource groups, programmes and third-sector organisations from tens of millions of pounds worth of grants from the Glasgow Communities Fund.

The move comes after more than £47 million worth of awards were due to be determined in September this year, however the body received an influx of applications totalling to £135 million.

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Applicants to be refused critical cash include the Citizen’s Advice Bureaux, Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis, Glasgow Women’s Aid, The Lodging House Mission and Drumchapel Money Advice Centre - of which is the First Minister’s first employer.

In total, officials have advocated for over £30 of million of vital funding to be rejected from the applicants.

For the full year of 2020/2021, over £11 million has been recommended for rejection. For 2021/2022, a further £12 million was recommended for rejection. For the following year, a further £12 million was again recommended for refusal of the funds.

The Glasgow Communities Fund was launched in September last year with £58 million made available for groups and projects in Glasgow over the next three years.

The aims of the fund are to reduce poverty levels and inequality across the city by providing financial support for services and activities that improve the health, well-being and social and economic position of communities and individuals.

Organisations can apply for between £20,000 and £200,000 per year for up to three years to cover some or all of project expenditure, including employee and running costs.

Opposition parties have since hit out at the authority over its bid to turn 134 applicants down for the crucial funds.

Local Labour leadership contender, Martin McElroy, told the Glasgow Times: “This is just the latest example of the SNP failing third sector partners in Glasgow.

“Whether it’s Citizens Advice, racial equality groups or anti-poverty charities, every community in Glasgow is harmed by failing to fund these projects.

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“For 13 years, Edinburgh has cut Glasgow’s budget so perhaps it’s inevitable that we see a loss of jobs, loss of services, and misery for our third-sector partners. Yet throughout this time, not a peep from a single SNP politician.

“I want to invite the First Minister to visit some of the projects in my community who have missed out so she can explain the austerity imposed on Glasgow from Edinburgh.

“Glasgow needs a fair funding deal, and we need to end the cuts to local services now.”

Conservative councillor Robert Connelly described the bid as “heartbreaking”.

He said: “From Citizens Advice Bureaus to health charities and women’s aid organisations, the list of applicants who have been refused funding is heartbreaking.

“These third sector groups provide vital services to our communities and to some of the most vulnerable in our society.

“Unfortunately in Glasgow, the Communities Fund has been overseen by a part-time City Convenor who has mismanaged the project from the very beginning amid a string of delays and her initial refusal to extend the deadline for applicants who had been refused due to petty administrative errors.

“It’s a damning indictment on the failures of this SNP council that charities and third sector organisations, as well as the Glaswegians that rely on them, are being made the victims of this administration’s weak leadership.”

The authority adopted a point-scoring assessment to allow them to make decisions about the appointments of the awards.

This included organisation/governance, project development, project delivery, project outcomes and impact of the fund, project finance and sustainability.

Convener for Community Empowerment, Equalities and Human Rights, councillor Jennifer Layden, said: “The report going before members outlines a total of almost £58 million of grants to community organisations and third sector partners across Glasgow.

“Our fund is of comparable value to the one administered by councillor McElroy and his Labour colleagues before 2017 – but we have opened it up to more organisations than ever before, including really high quality projects that were shut out under the last administration.

“It is also more tightly focused on poverty and equality than ever before – with £3.5 million awarded to citywide financial inclusion projects; £1.3 million for employability and skills; £4.2 million for 30 projects delivering for our communities of interest, and a total of £33 million set aside for local awards.

“So, this is not about a reduction in support, but an increase in applications – with bids worth more than £135 million received from across the city.

“I’d invite councillor McElroy to be clear about which of the successful organisations in his ward, and those of his colleagues, he would defund.”

An SNP Group spokeswoman said: “The City Administration is not cutting funding to the third sector. It is opening the fund to many more organisations in our communities than was ever the case under Labour.

“For many years Labour simply refused to create a fund which genuinely delivered for the wider third sector, not just a very small fraction of it.

“And now, for the first time, dozens of groups involved in the frontline fight against poverty, inequality and injustice across Glasgow can access this funding.

“Again, the SNP is mopping up Labour’s sorry legacy.

The report is due to go to next Thursday’s City Administration Committee.