ALG grants

In the issue of 11 July there was a news item headed "ALG funding cut puts homeless project in jeopardy" (page 13), suggesting that Frontline was having its grant cut.

This does not square with the advice given to the Association of London Government grants committee at its meeting on 15 July, when the chairman pointed out that this was not the case.

The recommended and approved grant to Frontline was increased over that given last year; what had been cut back was what Frontline had applied for as an increase – a slight difference, which needs to be considered in relation to the major oversubscription for funding this year, where a large number of organisations applying for the first time under the open bidding process received no funding at all and many that had been funded previously lost their grants in favour of other organisations.

The ALG obtains its funds from the 32 London boroughs and the City of London and has a budget of about £28m. As a result of the government moving resources from the south to the north of the country, London councils are not in any position to increase their contributions to the ALG.