A major north-east charity has warned of the potentially “devastating” impact of Big Lottery Fund cuts by the UK Government.
The chief executive of the Aberlour Child Care Trust has raised fears of a “perfect storm” of slashed funding and rising need.
The Treasury has declined to comment on reports it intends to “raid” the Big Lottery Fund’s cash pot for £320million in the autumn statement – a reduction in its budget of almost 50%.
SallyAnn Kelly, who heads the Moray-founded children’s charity, said the move would be a “hammer blow” to voluntary groups in Scotland.
She said: “If these proposals were to be implemented then the impact of a UK Government cut to lottery spending in Scotland on this scale would be devastating for thousands of people who rely on services provided by lottery grants.
“These are services which the public sector simply don’t have the capacity to provide.
“A significant cut to lottery funding, coupled with increased demand from people affected by welfare cuts and unemployment would represent a perfect storm for many Scottish charities.
“Scotland’s charities are used to working with very tight finances but a cut of this size to the lifeline funding that the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland represents could deliver a hammer blow to many organisations currently delivering vital services in Scottish communities.”
Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil agreed, calling on the UK Government to exempt the fund from any cuts.
He said: “Any cuts to the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland would have a devastating impact on the people and organisations who rely on the funding that helps more than 3,000 projects.
“The Scottish Government has united with the third sector in its opposition to proposals to slash the Big Lottery Fund’s budget.
“The National Lottery is independent of the UK Government so it should not be raiding the Big Lottery Fund to subsidise its departmental spending cuts.”
It is estimated more than 2,300 jobs are at least partly funded by Big Lottery Fund in Scotland grants.
A spokesman for HM Treasury said they would not comment on pre-spending review “speculation”.