Support for Energy Crisis Campaign

This statement of support for our campaign to reduce the impact of rising energy costs on charities and charity properties comes from James Kearns, Chief Executive, BUILD and Chair, Community Action Norfolk:

The rise in fuel costs affects more than just our homes, it is affecting all sectors of society. Our shops and businesses may be able to pass on their rising costs to customers in higher prices, but for our churches, charities and community organisations it is a different matter.

Most voluntary sector organisations rely on income from charitable trusts, community fundraising or personal donations and most plan ahead to ride the waves of national or global economics, building in predicted inflationary rises in their fixed costs of maybe 2-5% each year, but with UK inflation set to hit 13% in 2022-23, many of those organisations do not have the capacity to absorb that increase, nor pass that on to the people who use their services, often the most vulnerable in society. Those users will already be facing unmanageable rises in their domestic budgets, or social care costs at a time when the cost of care is widely acknowledged to be already hopelessly under-funded.

The inevitable consequence of this will be the reduction in the services offered by community organisations as they make cuts in spending and investment to ensure that they can survive in the longer term. This will be a “double whammy” for those most in need of social care, or social interaction through the wide variety of lunch clubs, social clubs, and volunteer led services in our communities. Costs hitting them at home, and in their community where traditionally they have found support.