Council Tax being spent on charities

[wheretoyougonow]

I have just read my town council news booklet for once and am a bit shocked. In there is a breakdown of the six local charities they are giving funding to. In exactly the next sentence after the charity cost breakdown (which are not small amounts) they’ve written that due to their spending and funding commitments they are raising the council tax by 4.94% for some bandings!
We are a town with three active food banks (this is not one of the charities).
I personally would never donate to 2 of the charities chosen.
Is everyone else aware that part of the funding from council tax is given to charity? I can’t believe in a cost of living crisis and in a country that is woefully underfunding things like care - councils are giving money to charities.

I am not naming the charities for obvious reasons but it’s the principle. If I want to give to charity, I will do. Some people struggle to afford council tax and need the money themselves.

I have posted this in chat just for a discussion really. Obviously I think some charities are important but I want the choice.

Most councils pay grants (not donations) to charities. There is normally an application process and the money is often for a specific project in the local area. Other charities get grants or are awarded contracts to undertake work on behalf of the council.

our council has a mayors charity on an annual basis who they fund raise for separately to any council funds.

@EquinoxQueen that’s what I thought happened.

Is it a parish council?
ours has a budget for grants, these usually go to community groups, food banks, sports clubs etc all things that support the local community

OP said it was Town Council - effectively the same thing

A large proportion of your council taxes go to external companies and (to a lesser extent) charities who provide services on behalf of council. Long gone are the days of councils running services in house.

Fostering agencies and children's homes are usually private companies or charities, for example.

As others have pointed out money is not 'given' to charities. Your council tax will be going up because the cost of everything is going up. That includes staff working in charities who are likely being funded by the council to provide services (either through a grant or a contract). Given that charities are often paying minimum wage, if the council were to deliver these services they would cost more and so your council tax increase would be even higher.
Do you know that central governments also do this so your income tax will also be paying for projects and services delivered by charities - again likely at a lower cost than if government delivered it directly.

You seem to think your council tax is going up to fund these charity donations, as if it’s a totally new cost for this year.

It’s almost certainly the council
outsourcing stuff they’re supposed to do themselves. It’s usually done as a grant to fund a particular project or activity rather than into the charity’s general funds. You could confirm this by making a FOI request.

Im definitely aware that public bodies use charities to deliver some of their services, and that public money is used to enable this.

Town councils have limited things they can spend funding on. Granting to charities is something they can do to provide additional services.

My town council was recently lambasted on Facebook for giving grants to charities when we done have enough doctors. Unfortunately the town council can't fund doctors. Eg

If you don't state the charities and the purposes for the grants then its impossible to answer your question.

As PP say - many services are delivered in local areas by local charities, usually after applying for grants to deliver said services. If your council's charities are mostly aimed at young people it could well be that youth charities have applied to deliver certain youth services whilst services for other groups are still delivered by the council or a professional service organisation.

Find out what is actually happening rather than assuming and then make an informed decision about your vote next time.