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MP Michael Fallon's on Sevenoaks' voluntary groups |
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MP Michael Fallon believes Sevenoaks’ voluntary bodies need more help
One of the great pleasures of being MP for Sevenoaks is that I get to
meet local groups and learn about their work. I’m always impressed by
the sheer range of voluntary bodies across the constituency. Some are
pressure groups – Sevenoaks Friends of the Earth, for example, whom I’m
looking forward to joining on their Climate Change Action Day on April
5.
The Sevenoaks Society, who campaign to keep our town attractive, and
the Hospital League of Friends, who played such an important part in
last year’s campaign to keep Sevenoaks Hospital open, are other
examples.
Indeed, let’s not forget that Sevenoaks Hospital was itself a
voluntary body, founded and supported by charitable giving long before
the NHS was invented.
But most local groups provide services. Services like bereavement
counselling, neighbour mediation, holiday clubs for children, hospital
transport, lunch clubs.
Brasted Youth Club, for example, on a shoestring budget helps keep
youngsters from Brasted and Sundridge active and out of trouble.
Voluntary bodies do have issues. It’s not easy to find new leaders and
committee members from amongst our time-pressed commuters. All could
use more money, and probably spend it more wisely than the government.
But of course they are volunteers, and not part of the state.
The district council helps where it can, giving small grants to many
worthy causes. But its own finances are tightly stretched. There are
three things we could do to help our volunteers.
First, let’s not keep trying to nationalise them. By their nature, some
local groups don’t fit perfectly into some Whitehall pattern. It isn’t
always possible for them to share central government objectives.
Sevenoaks Rugby Club, running one of the biggest youth clubs in Kent,
is penalised in its grant aid application because it’s already
successful. Sport England, the regional quango, has to spend its money
according to government criteria like widening access.
Second, small grants can go a long way. Small-scale capital grants – a
few thousand here and there – can transform the outlook for a village
group or youth club.
Third, in countries like the United States, there’s not just more
charitable giving but more local charitable giving. People support
their local institutions because they’re proud of them and because they
identify with them.
Here in the UK we do give to charity. But it’s often the big national
charities, for example, in areas like animal welfare, that benefit. Why
not a tax break for local giving? Or some rebate from the council tax
for those who put their back into local volunteering. Voluntary bodies
reach the parts that government cannot reach. Let’s do more to back
them.
www.michaelfallonpm.org.uk
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Last Updated ( Friday, 29 February 2008 )
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