‘Mayor pours £8.022m into community organisations’

Press Release                                       

Massive boost for 3rd Sector- Mayor pours £8.022m into community organisations to combat Tory-led cuts

Independent Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman today announced an £8.022m investment in the borough’s 3rd Sector, saying “at a time when Councils up and down the country see community groups as an easy target for savings, this administration is doing more than ever to invest in the small organisations that are the backbone of Tower Hamlets.”

This year saw an unprecedented rise in the number of applications with more than 430 organisations making bids requesting over £25m.

 Around 100 organisations asked for their allocations to be reviewed and the Mayor has reconsidered many applications on the back of their representations.

 The Mayor said: “The Tory-led cuts have changed the landscape and we’ve had to re-think provision from the ground up. Today we’ve sown the seeds for a new kind of 3rd sector, one that’s flexible, localised and empowers neighbourhoods to take control of the way their services are run and delivered.”

Chair of the Community Grants Programme Board, Cllr Maium Miah said: “In these tough times there’s a balance to strike between a local playgroup and the big social enterprises that pull in three or four million a year. We’ve concentrated on the most vulnerable – lunch clubs for older people, nursery places for our kids, study support and leisure for our young people. We’ve also invested heavily in programmes that help people get into work as well as community languages to empower residents to overcome the language barrier. Overall this is great news for the 3rd Sector.”

 Ends

 Notes to editors:

 1.       A total of 430 applications requesting £25m in funding were received.

2.       £8.022m funded from dedicated grants and underspends across the council has been allocated to around 400 3rd Sector groups.

3.       The grants were initially allocated by the Community Grants Programme Board (CGPB) with their recommendations published at the September Cabinet meeting.

4.       The Citizen’s Advice Bureau was awarded £425,000, the most of any organisation.

5.       Tower Hamlets has had to find £100m in savings in the period 2010-13.Frontline services have been maintained and no libraries have closed. For a comparison see Labour-led Newcastle’s response to £90m in cuts here

For  information about this press release contact Numan Hussain, Political Adviser to the Mayor on 07508 352 023 or email:

numan.hussain@towerhamlets.gov.uk