Advice charity helps build sustainable communities, summit told
1st February 2005
Citizens Advice Bureaux and other advice agencies are underestimated as a force for economic development and regeneration, the Sustainable Communities Summit in Manchester heard today.
Speaking at a fringe meeting at the summit, Citizens Advice Communications Director Simon Bottery told delegates that bureaux boost their local economies by bringing tens of thousands of pounds of additional money into communities through benefits and compensation payments for clients.
Bureaux also attract national cash into local economies through additional funding for local advice services from sources such as the Big Lottery Fund, the Legal Services Commission and the national Citizens Advice organisation.
And bureaux save money as well as raising it, through solving people’s legal and other problems, preventing homelessness and helping people manage debt problems.
Many people who consult a Citizens Advice Bureau for help to sort out problems end up better off financially as a result. An independent study of Brighton CAB found that in one year alone it had gained additional income of £676,000 for its clients in regular benefit payments and one-off lump sums.
Simon Bottery said:
“This spending power is particularly important to the local economy for two reasons. Firstly it is likely to stay local. Secondly, because it is spent it circulates in the local economy and has even more impact. Some studies estimate that income of this sort should be trebled to give a measure of its real effect.”
He added that without the work Citizens Advice Bureaux do to help resolve the problems of around 2.75 million people each year, the drain on the economy would be much higher than the £12 million estimated by the Department of Constitutional Affairs it costs people in time, trouble and ill-health to sort out legal and other problems.
“Bureaux also save councils money. Every time they prevent someone becoming homeless through rent rescheduling or helping with financial management they save the council the cost of rehousing them.”
The range of services bureaux provide free are of real value to local councils, he added.
“At a conservative estimate, the value of the time provided free by the trained volunteers working in bureaux in England and Wales is around £70m each year.”
In just one town - Sevenoaks - the Citizens Advice Bureau has estimated the annual value of the advice it provides to residents at £250,000.
Bureaux also provide free training to local people. Every year they train over 3000 new volunteers and provide additional training to many of the other 8000 existing volunteers working in bureaux.
“Since the single biggest reason for leaving the CAB service to go into paid employment, bureaux are making a clear contribution to the employability of local people and building skills that studies have noted are often lacking in disadvantaged communities,”
said Simon Bottery.
Last updated: February 23, 2007