Third sector organisations have the potential to play an important role in the design, development and delivery of public services. That is reflected in our recent reforms in offender management, employment policy and health and social care. However, the third sector should never be an excuse for cutting Government funding to public services.
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that reply and am reassured by his belief that the third sector should not be used as an excuse for cutting services. What further help can the Government give third sector organisations operating in my constituency, such as the West Cumbria Society for the Blind, the Hospice at Home West Cumbria, NCH and others, to ensure that local authorities and bodies such as primary care trusts give them the help and resources that they need to undertake their work?
My hon. Friend makes an important point about the relationship between local authorities and third sector organisations on the ground, because it often defines whether or not those organisations succeed. I pay tribute to the organisations in his constituency that he mentions. We have made progress, in the sense that one of our targets for local government will measure the relationship between the local authorities and local third sector organisations, which will help to address a relevant issue in many areas—how local authorities treat the third sector and whether they help such organisations to grow and thrive.
Is the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster aware that a number of local charities throughout England and Wales have recently become involved in the running of local post offices? They have found that where post office staff are not available to do that job, they can provide a service for perhaps two or three days a week. What steps is he taking to intervene with the Department for Work and Pensions, which created this crisis in the first place by reducing local post offices’ footfall?
As my ministerial colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Corby (Phil Hope), said, we are providing a subsidy of £150 million a year to local post offices. I have heard no proposals from the Conservative party as to how it would provide more money; all we hear, as we hear about every issue, is that we should have a moratorium on closures, but the Conservatives offer no real solutions. We are ensuring that we have not only a thriving post office network, but a sustainable one.
Surely the Minister recognises—in fact, I know that he does—the third sector’s value to many of our constituencies, in particular my own, which contains the Mary Ann Evans hospice and other valuable charities. Does he understand that in the current world climate of financial slow-down, all those charities will be severely challenged in raising the money that they need to keep those good services going? Will the Government give a commitment to examine carefully the core funding they provide? Perhaps the Government will be able to increase it at this difficult time.
My hon. Friend makes an important point: at a time of financial pressures, third sector organisations in particular can feel the pinch. I am pleased that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor made announcements in his Budget statement last week that will help charities to the tune of £300 million—that is money that they thought they were going to lose as a result of changes to income tax, but which they will get through gift aid. That will make a difference to them.
My hon. Friend also emphasises the need to fund small local organisations properly. That is why the new grassroots grants programme, which has been pioneered by my hon. Friend the Member for Corby, will help local organisations with those small sums that can make a big difference to the kind of services that they can provide to the community.