Cuts backlash: Big Society volunteers 'will be left with nowhere to volunteer'

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Communities and also in Local Government

Volunteers in the Big Society will be left with nowhere to volunteer their services, the Government was warned today.

Labour said the sector felt "a deep sense of betrayal" over coalition cuts and called for a debate on the Big Society's future.

Shadow leader of the house Hilary Benn said: "Having been marched to the top of the Big Society hill, they now discover on the other side there isn't a pot of gold but a precipice."

Mr Benn pointed to today's open letter from 88 Lib Dem council chiefs, the Project Merlin deal with banks over bonuses and lending, and Lord Oakeshott's resignation last night as proof of "a terrible week for ministers".

Mr Benn said "Scarcely was the magic ink dry on Project Merlin than the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott could contain himself no longer.

"He called the deal 'pitiful', the Treasury negotiations 'incompetent' and 'arrogant' and said about this bonus deal, 'whether it's paid in cash or shares, a multi-million-pound bonus is still a multi-million-pound bonus whether you have to wait two years to buy the yacht'.

"Clearly all this was too much for truth deniers on the Treasury frontbench."

Speaking at Business Questions, Mr Benn demanded an urgent statement from Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles following today's Times letter signed by 88 local Lib Dem heads warning Government spending cuts would damage the economy and hit the most vulnerable.

Mr Benn said: "Getting rid of a few chocolate biscuits and cutting a few salaries isn't going to do it and the price of his policies is going to be paid by shut libraries, disappearing Sure Start centres, people losing their jobs and volunteers discovering there is nowhere left to volunteer."