London Councils hit by judicial review proceedings over grant cuts

The London Councils group is facing judicial review proceedings over plans to slash its £26.4m grants scheme, in one of the first major legal actions to emerge over charitable funding cuts.

Claimant law firm Pierce Glynn is bringing the action on behalf of three services users of two of the organisations affected, the Roma Support Group and the nia project.

In a statement, the firm said: “They claim the process involved in cutting the budget has been so unfair and the timetable so tight that they had no option to involve the High Court.”

Pierce Glynn added that the third sector organisations were concerned that London Councils, which represents local authorities in the capital, had not considered the various equality issues fully.

It claimed that the group had also not given itself enough time to do so during their consultation process, given that the consultation period ended on 10 November and recommendations on proposed cuts are expected to be made on 25 November.

Final decisions on London Councils’ grants scheme are set to be taken on 14 December 2010. The review could see the budget for the grants scheme cut by as much as 80%.

A judge has ordered London Councils to lodge its response to the claim within seven days.

Louise Whitfield, the solicitor representing the service users, said: “The grants scheme was specifically set up to provide London-wide services to the most vulnerable groups that would not or could not be provided by individual boroughs. The services used by my clients are educational support for Roma children and a specialist refuge for women fleeing domestic violence with funding for both projects meant to continue to 2012. However, London Councils have made a preliminary assessment that these services are ‘local’ and indicated that their funding may be cut as early as March 2011.”

She said London Councils had claimed it could consider more than 600 consultation responses and look at the impact on 320 different commissions in only two weeks.

Whitfield added: “Despite the threat to the existence of the projects, London Councils has failed to provide any details of how they will decide whether to keep funding these groups or not; nor have they given us any evidence of how they will assess the impact on race and gender equality of stopping funding this vital work.”

Pierce Glynn said the Roma Support Group and the nia project would face “extraordinary difficulty” in securing alternative sources in the three months’ notice given by London Councils of the potential cut in funding.

A London Councils spokesman said it was aware of the issue and would respond “through the proper channels”.

Ed Archer