At the Committee, some London councillors were calling for a 33% cut to the scheme, with money ‘repatriated’ to local councils to allocate to borough services, but the ALG has insisted that a final decision has not been made on the proposal. This, it said, would follow the September meeting of the cross-party Grants Executive and be made by the ALG Leaders’ Committee, meaning the decision will be arrived at “at a truly pan-London level”.

The ALG also said that that the proposal was not a ‘severe cut’, but instead a re-allocation of resources to a local level.

However, Michael Murray, co-director of adviceUK London Region and co-chair of Voluntary Sector Forum said: “The calls from certain councillors to cut the grants scheme by a third are a bolt out of the blue. It’s a massive reduction. There’s been no examination of how this will affect Londoners, but the voluntary sector knows that it would not be feasible to replicate the current wide range of services in every single London borough. ALG funding supports crucial cross-London services which are effective and value for money. If the proposal to cut funding goes through, vulnerable Londoners will bear the brunt of councillors’ decisions.”