Budget 2010: How will it affect you?

Find out what the Emergency Budget means for those working in or with the voluntary and community sector, as we bring you an at-a-glance summary of key points announced by the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Mr Osborne called today's budget “unavoidable” as he announced plans to cut the structural budget deficit to zero in the next six years. Yet the Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP, Acting Leader of the Labour Party, called the coalition Budget "reckless" and said it would lead to thousands losing their jobs.

Key points for the voluntary and community sector include:

• Departmental budgets face an average real cut of around 25% over four years (apart from health and aid spending which is protected).
  
  
• VAT will increase to 20% in January 2011 Although this will impact on the sector, the Government has committed to work with sector bodies to assess the feasibility of implementing the EU cost-sharing exemption in VAT.  A formal consultation on this will be launched in the autumn.
  
  
• A bank levy will be introduced, which will apply to the balance sheets of UK banks and building societies and the UK operations of foreign banks. Smaller banks will not have to pay. This is expected to raise more than £2 billion a year.
  
  
• Councils which propose low council tax increases will be offered extra funds to allow them to freeze council tax for one year from April 2011.
  
  
• A Regional Growth Fund will be created to help fund regional capital projects over two years.
  
  
• The welfare budget has been cut by £11 billion.
  
  
• The Budget includes a commitment to continue to work with the sector, including the Gift Aid forum, to improve the system and to encourage more charitable giving.  Here at NCVO, we will be working to persuade government of the need to simplify the current system through its work with the Gift Aid forum and wider representations to government.
  
  
• Substantial charity donors HMRC intends to replace the current rules and will be consulting informally on this through the summer. Full legislation will be published in the autumn. 
  
  
• The National Lottery Alongside the Government’s consultation on the allocation of good causes funding from the National Lottery, the Government will review the current National Lottery taxation arrangements. 

Read the full Budget documents

Forward Planning

The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) will be presented on Wednesday 20th October. We will be inputting during the consultation phase over the summer - in the meantime, please read our initial Spending Review briefing [PDF].

A White Paper will be published on tackling regional economic differences in Britain later in the summer.

There will also be informal consultation on substantial donors over the summer months.

Concerned about the cuts?

We’ve pulled together links to all our most relevant articles (including plenty of practical advice guides) in our new Coping with Cuts section. We'd also encourage all of you to get in touch with your experiences – spare a moment to take our quick survey or start a discussion with other site members.