U.K. Charity Leader Says Spending Cuts Imperil ‘Big Society’

The longtime head of Britain’s biggest volunteer organization says the government’s deep spending reductions are undermining its vision of a “Big Society” in which charities take over as frontline service providers, according to the BBC and Reuters.

Elisabeth Hoodless, who is stepping down from Community Service Volunteers after 36 years as executive director, said the budget cuts imposed by the government on local authorities are putting the organizations that could carry out the Big Society plan “under threat of closure” and risks “destroying the volunteer army.”

Nick Hurd, the minister for civil society, said the government is creating new sources of aid for nonprofit groups, with his agency investing about $756-million over the next for years.

Mounting criticism from charities and even from within the government have put the Big Society in trouble, a former adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron writes in a Financial Times opinion piece.

Danny Kruger, who runs a crime-reduction charity and served as a special adviser to Mr. Cameron, said the plan’s enemies blast it as a cover for slashed spending, and its “critical friends” say that because of the cuts, the government can’t follow through on its promise.