james.allen's blog

A week on from NCVO’s annual conference and I’ve finally tackled my inbox (I think) and fulfilled my promise to post a blog.  The conference was a great success, with hundreds of delegates attending from a hugely diverse range of organisations and it was great that the NCVO and Compact Voice teams spent the day talking to colleagues and contacts from across all sectors.  My colleague Adam Pickering and I were lucky enough to be invited to take part in one of the best attended sessions of the day in discussing ‘hot issues in policy and politics’ with over 100 delegates.

The Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) has launched its report into the Big Society today.  NCVO submitted written evidence to the Committee and our Chief Exec, Sir Stuart Etherington also appeared before the Committee earlier this year and so we’ve been awaiting the report with interest. 

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, known as the ‘Pre Budget report’ in the New Labour era, took place against a fairly grim economic backdrop with stalling growth and relatively high and rising levels of unemployment and inflation.  The Chancellor outlined the scale of the “debt challenge” facing the Government and confirmed that it will take longer than expected, with deeper than expected cuts in some areas, to eliminate the structural deficit.   The overall figures set out in the 2010 Spending Review in terms of borrowing and saving still apply, but there will be further sh

To those yet to be initiated into the ‘Twitterati’, it means ‘Open Public Services White Paper’.  The paper, which comes a few months later than planned, was launched at a relatively low key event by the Prime Minister early this we

On 28th June HMRC published the VAT cost sharing exemption consultation, looking at how the exemption might be implemented in the UK.

We're now publishing a more detailed policy analysis and some recommendations around the Giving White Paper.  My view is still that there is a lot of positive intent from government and many positive ideas in the White Paper.  To increase rates of giving in a challenging economic environment and in an already generous country is going to be tough.  The more

The government wants you to give more and this is a laudable ambition that many share. The ultimate aim is a mass culture of participation with more people giving their time and money, and those who give already doing more. They are right to suggest that we are a generous country, with the majority of people giving regularly, but there is potential to do far more.

In the week that Nick and Dave are blowing out the candle on the coalition's first anniversary cake and following devolved and local elections (and the AV referendum in case you'd forgotten), this feels like a good moment to take stock.  The Big Society is the Government's big idea - some might say an alternative defining vision to Tony Blair's Third Wa

Budget day is one of my favourite and one of the most exciting working days of the year. I'm not joking. Yes, this means I’m a geek but also reflects the importance of Budget day to the sector. The Spending Review decisions announced last October ushered in a period of massive and painful fiscal retrenchment.

Money, or the lack of it, is on everyone's mind.  The question of how to build the Big Society in the most austere public spending climate in the post war period is a good one, and social investment could well prove part of the solution.  Current low rates of return on investment and widespread unease about the financial services industry, combined with the social impacts of the recession