Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal Democrats

The Third Dimension-A Strategic Action Plan for the Voluntary Sector Scheme and Annual Report on the Voluntary Sector Scheme 2006-07

Peter Black: I will start with Jeff's last point, because it is important that we get this into perspective. Jeff has been talking about a real-terms growth in local authority budgets, when, in fact, we are talking about a 2.2 per cent increase in local authority budgets, compared to inflation of 2.6 or 2.7 per cent, which, according to anyone else's calculations, is a real-terms cut. We have to get that right. Listening to Jeff, I am reminded that we have this debate every year, and sometimes Members may deliver similar speeches and possibly pick up the previous year's speech by mistake. I am sure that Jeff must have done that in referring to the local government settlement. Local authorities are not facing anything like a real-terms growth in their settlement, but a real-terms cut.

That is also happening to the voluntary sector. This report is entitled 'The third dimension'. I am not sure what the third dimension is, I thought that it was something from Star Trek; I, and the sector itself, prefer to call it the third sector. The Government mentions how tight the budget is and, clearly, how it delivers its plans is important. If we look at the annual report, it specifically names Cymorth Cymru, for example, which is an umbrella organisation that works with supported housing groups. Its budget is to be cut by a total of £869,000 over the next three years. The report also mentions work with the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Services Cymru, a charity that looks after the interests of children in family proceedings and family courts, and its budget is to be cut by a total of £75,000 over the next three years. The Communities and Culture Committee has taken evidence from a number of voluntary sector organisations specifically on funding issues. In our last meeting, we had evidence from the Arts Council of Wales and the Sports Council for Wales on how they are coping with their tight budgets. To the Government's credit, it has increased the money available to those organisations, but, unfortunately, that is not enough to compensate for the losses in National Lottery funding as a result of money being put aside for the London Olympics. As a consequence of what is, effectively, a cut in the budgets of both the arts council and the sports council, important and effective schemes, particularly around capital funding, have had to be either frozen or cut, and that is of some concern. The Minister for Heritage last week announced that he had found, from underspends, £13.5 million for the Wales Millennium Centre. Although I am happy to support that initiative, because the centre is important, it would be helpful if the Government could re-examine its underspends and find £13.5 million for the arts council and for the sports council, which would be money that might be spent elsewhere in Wales. It is important that those organisations are seen to be equally valued, along with the many voluntary sector organisations around Wales that do an invaluable job, which is appreciated by those who come into contact with them.

We must all recognise the important job that the third sector does, especially given the statutory status with which the sector was awarded in the Government of Wales Act 2006. The sector provides more that its front-line work, and helps to inform us as politicians and to generate a wider and more general understanding of the issues that it faces among the wider population. As a result of the third sector's work, we have policy that has been guided by the people who know best about a particular sector, and who deal with it on a day by day basis.

The Assembly Government has a very important policy, which I wholeheartedly support, of moving to three-year budgets for third sector organisations, and, if possible, towards five-year budgets. Much progress has been made in recent years in achieving those aims. The problem is that, once you get out into communities, that progress is not always replicated by local government support for the third sector, or in some instances, in the money that they get from other areas. Although I accept that the Assembly Government is limited in its reach and influence over a number of those organisations, we need to stress this over and again. If we are to give third sector organisations the stability that they require, we need to ensure that other organisations follow suit in providing the support over that period of time.