Greetings!

The Comprehensive Spending Review is here. Departmental cuts will average 19 per cent, not 25 per cent as had been feared, but this is little comfort to the Charity Commission, whose budget has been slashed by 27 per cent. There is some good news for the sector, though - a £100m transition fund to help ease service delivery organisations through the crisis, and a total budget of £470m to boost the sector's capacity to create the Big Society.

Government promises £470m for sector capacity-building

The government plans to spend £470m over the next four years building the capacity of the voluntary sector to deliver the Big Society, it announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review today.

Transition fund aimed at charities with income of £50k to £10m

The £100m transition fund announced today by the government will be targeted at service-delivery organisations that have low levels of reserves and high dependence on public funding streams that are particularly vulnerable to budget cuts, civil society minister Nick Hurd said today.

Transition fund must not reward bad practice, says Navca chief

Navca has described the £100m transition fund as a "big surprise and very welcome" but warned that there will be huge competition for the funds which will necessitate a debate about priorities.

Commission faces 'extremely challenging' funding drop

The Charity Commission will see its annual funding drop by 27 per cent over the next four years as a result of the government's spending review, and will have to cut another 140 staff.

Dfid budget to grow by 50 per cent by 2014/15

Government funding for the Department of International Development will grow by nearly 50 per cent to £11.5bn by 2014/15, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced.