Local authority funding underpins the voluntary sector’s role in building racial justice and social cohesion in London – and cutting it now risks undoing decades of progress, writes Natasha Friend, CEO of Camden Giving.
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The proposed Government cuts to London Councils’ funding that were covered recently on the BBC and elsewhere will inevitably be felt by civil society; and the outcomes will be catastrophic for communities – for example, experiencing racism - in a city where social cohesion simply cannot be taken for granted.

In our experience at Camden Giving – where we run a participatory grant-making programme within the community - councils don’t have a long list of budgets they can cut. So, for charities like ours, it seems inevitable that our funders’ funding will reduce even more. Meaning we, and charities like us, have limited means for reaching into communities and supporting those that need it. What’s at stake if this happens is too important to ignore.

Last week I sat in a large conference room at an even larger company; the sort of room that has those huge screens behind the speakers and makes you think a wealthy entrepreneur (typically white and male) is about to walk onto the stage to show you their latest profitable invention.

Instead, that day the stage was full of the ethnically diverse young people of Camden, and they had created an event for their peers about the future of work. Over 200 young people were in attendance, and I looked around that room with a very big smile about the diversity and ambition of these young people. It was a space that reflected London as a city where people of all backgrounds can reach their potential. Yes, our capital city has its challenges; race, disability, gender and other protected characteristics still play far too great a role in life outcomes, that’s exactly why Camden Giving, exists. And - along with the wider civil society sector - we’re making progress; making a meaningful difference.

When I asked the young people how they’d found out about this event, they all told me about the many charities that had encouraged them to step out of their comfort zone and attend. What do all the charities they named have in common? They are ensuring young people gain career insights from a large company, in part, because of local authority funding.

This is why I worry about ongoing cuts, including this latest round of boroughs earmarked in London’s funding; it will inevitably dent the progress that’s been made to support young people to thrive.

A generation ago, London was a very different place. If we take Camden as an example, the 1997 short documentary film, ‘Bengali Backlash’, showed the reality of racism, with young Bengali people fearing for their lives on Camden’s streets. Furthermore, research conducted by the Institute of Education at University College London highlighted concerning disparities; in 1999, only one Somali student passed the GCSE examination in Camden, while Camden's overall average was 47.7% for students achieving five A*-C grades.

Fast forward to 2021 and Somali students’ educational outcomes in Camden were broadly in-line with the general population in the borough and the country. Where there were gaps, the council recommended that educators mirror the work that had been done by a local charity, Somali Youth Development Resource Centre, to bridge the gap. And whilst London needs to do more to end hate crime, the sort of violence that was seen in Bengali Backlash is rarer now. Much of this progress has been made by local government investment in civil society – and funding models of community cohesion that work.

I’m certainly not saying that racism has ended in London, far from it, Black Londoners are twice as likely as white Londoners to need to use a food bank, and London’s streets are safer for white Londoners than Londoners from the global majority. But progress has been made.

For example, in Camden, school attainment was improved for Somali young people by a charity-run mentoring programme. And Bengali safety was created by civil society leaders working with local government to demand better outcomes in housing and safety.

We believe that cutting funding from London Councils is a racial justice issue. London is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the UK, and cuts will inevitably have the greatest impact on the work councils do to make their boroughs places where diversity is fostered and celebrated. The voluntary sector will pick up the pieces as best it can, we always do. But in an already challenging fundraising environment, this could be the straw that breaks the back of some of the amazing charities that quietly hold social cohesion together.

The cuts to London Council’s funding is rooted in a belief that “London is rich” - and in pockets it is, but local governments do not have the legislation to tax that wealth to support some of the most deprived communities in the country. In Camden some houses sell for £5million yet the childhood poverty rate is currently 43%. Whether you are living in those expensive houses or whether you are raising children in poverty is not random, your protected characteristics define how likely you are to live either of these lives.

London is also rich because of its vast business hubs, so perhaps there’s an assumption that civil society in London can continue to weather the storm with corporate CSR based investment. Worryingly though, the CAF Corporate Giving Report 2025 shows a stagnation of corporate giving, with little optimism that it’s about to change.

If London’s civil society is to remain a national flagship of wonderful cohesion-building force that it’s been over the last three decades with local government investment, then it will need to look to personal philanthropy - and there London really does have an upper-hand. The Civil Society Covenant talks about government convening the third sector and about local empowerment; those things have the potential to bring philanthropists and charities together...but is unlikely to fill the gap left by reduced local authority funding.

This will be indicative of the environment in other areas of the UK too. Local authorities cannot be cut ever closer to the bone, otherwise it won’t be long before charities won’t be there to step up and step in to help the forgotten.

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