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Government plans to cut spending on youth services have come under fire  this week from opposition politicians and some charities in East London for their potentially damaging effects.

As part of a wider programme of budget cuts affecting all areas of Government spending, many organisations set up to help young people will find their grants reduced, sometimes drastically – a situation which could lead to some East London charities being forced to scale back their operations, or even close.

Opponents of the funding changes have attacked their relationship to Prime Minister Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ concept, under which centralised social initiatives will be replaced by grass-roots volunteering and the contributions of charities.

The criticism follows concerns raised last week at plans for a ‘non-military national service’ for teenagers, which some local charity groups say could draw attention and resources away from existing youth volunteering

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said: “Small scale community activity is fundamentally important to civil society. It depends on small grants, and if these are wiped out this will remove the very support structures that community groups depend on and undermine the big society.”

In East London, where many charities perform work with disadvantaged young people, those working in the voluntary sector have criticised the plans to cut funding, and highlighted the disparity between wider austerity measures and the promotion of a new government-led ‘volunteering camps’ project.

Bisi Ojuri, Managing Director at the Volunteer Centre in Hackney, told EastLondonLines: “We have cuts in our organisation and a lot of volunteering organisations are closing due to lack of funding; small organisations are having to fold. Where will the young people be placed? It doesn’t make sense to put more young people into the volunteer sector if there are no spaces.”

One local youth-oriented charity concerned about the potential impact of the cuts is Body and Soul, an Islington-based group that helps children, young people and families dealing with HIV.

Louise Gibbs, its fundraising and partnership manager, said: “If they cut funding from Body and Soul then the cost for the NHS will actually go up, as we can provide services those dealing with HIV at a low cost compared to hospitals.”

“Aid support grants that have already been axed haven’t had an impact on us yet, but in terms of funding it’s hard to tell what effect that will have in the long run,” she said, despite noting that other important sources of funding such as Lottery grants and Comic Relief money remain safe.

Vivian Smith, projects and contact manager at Hackney-based Headliners, a charity which offers young people personal development through journalism projects, said that although the immediate future looked difficult, she is confident in the strength of her organisation to withstand wider funding shortages.

“The contracts we have at present are all secure – we’ve had no cuts so far,” she said. “But it is undoubtedly a very difficult time: the winning of new contracts has slowed.”

“We have had to streamline and become more flexible in order to deal with the recession.”

“Anywhere within the Olympic boroughs have an advantage at this time. Being in London at this time is exciting: there are some interesting contracts. We have a contract with the BBC.”

“At present, the government are tightening their purse strings and evaluating where they can save money. But really, everyone is waiting till Autumn when the government will release their Green Paper results.”

“It’s important that young people don’t get despondent- we don’t want people feeling like they’re in an underclass- we want to prevent social unrest and help young people feel like they have something to offer.”

One of the hardest-hit organisations under the new plans will be Connexions, a network of centres set up in 2000 to offer advice and support to 13 to 19-year-olds.

According to professional publication Children and Young People Now, some Connexions partnerships could lose up to half of their budgets – with 75% of centres expecting to make some staff redundant.

According to a survey conducted by the magazine, one in five Connexions heads say their local authority is considering closing its branch completely in favour of merging advice services with other areas of youth provision.

Katharine Horler, chair of the National Connexions Network, criticised the cuts, expressing concern about the capacity of teachers to offer guidance services in place of Connexions officers.

“The scale of these cuts means that councils are prioritising statutory responsibilities and IAG [Information, Advice and Guidance] will suffer as a result,” she said.

Labour MP Kevan Jones also opposed the decision. He said: “It makes no sense in a recession to be cutting an advice service for young people aged 13 to 19, offering support and specialising in education, training and employment.”

“There is a huge risk for some young people in not getting jobs and staying outside education or training. Young people should not be penalised because of the inept economic decisions of others.”

Ian Keating, senior policy officer at the Local Government Association, said: “Connexions is largely funded by the Department for Education area-based grant, which has been reduced by 25 per cent.”

Defending the move and calling on councils to be more flexible in delivering services, he added: “There are bigger additional pressures on local authorities, such as safeguarding children.”

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett has also criticised the new government’s spending plans and their potential effects on youth services. “A big chunk of the area-based grant goes into youth inclusion, youth work, Connexions and beyond,” he said. “It’s disappearing now and in the months ahead without people really understanding what it means.”

Additional reporting by Camilla Brown.

You can read our feature on youth volunteering under new government proposals here.

Cameron in Lewisham by Andrew Parsons

Plans for a, “non-military national service” for teenagers, have been announced by Prime Minister David Cameron. The initiative has been criticised by some charity groups along the East London Line over its potential to draw attention and resources away from existing youth volunteering organisations. (more…)

Des Res in Bethnal Green by Benjamin Hoyte

As the Government threatens to cap housing benefit at £250 per week for a one bed flat Boris Johnson is calling for Londoners to be ‘spared’ from such ‘draconian’ plans. But then Boris, from Canonbury and Eton, probably can’t imagine living in anything costing £250 per week.

Here in the East London Line boroughs, we are ready to open our  comforting arms  to embrace the frantic, stressed and newly nomadic citizens.  We face little competition for cheap rented accommodation in the capital .

Checking on the Find-a-Property website we found an abundance of one bed flats with the highest number in Hackney (31 places). Croydon had the smallest number of flats available in the price range on the site, with nineteen each for Lewisham and Tower Hamlets.

Admittedly some of the flats would be ideal only for those who use multi-tasking as a way of life.: homes where you can cook, use the toilet and feed the cat all at the same time. Yes the places are small. What do you expect to £250 in London?

Hackney typically over the years has been a borough of high unemployment and back in 2006 was rated the worst borough to live in through a Channel 4 survey. At the same time unemployment figures were the highest in London at 16.4%. Many of the flats on offer are (irony of ironies) those very same ex-council flats that were sold off to their tenants the last time the Conservatives were in power in the 1980s.  However, the new East London Line, has encouraged a frenzy of flat building, bringing with it some great housing opportunities at a low cost. The timing is perfect.

Beware though, the prices rise, and the space, declines the closer you get to Shoreditch (which has lately gone up in the world due to the presence of its burgeoning celebrity scene).

As a pretend job seeker with an allowance of £280 a week, I went into various estate agents around Shoreditch to see what was really available for my budget. The results were not encouraging. In one case I was offered a luxurious (ahem) 1 bed flat on Bethnal Green Road. I was told, if I wanted to, I  could use the large(ish) living space as a second bedroom. I was smitten, especially when I saw what it looked like from outside.

Saying this, not all were as sad and I did come across a new build block of “highly modern 1 bedroom apartments located in Dalston, decorated to the very highest of standards in one of East London’s most desired developments, just a stone’s throw from the new Dalston (East London Line)”. On the map it appears to be actually inside the Kingsland shopping centre which could be handy for those who have come down in the world as you can sell gold for cash right there, a stone’s throw from your bed.

Things will be tougher for big families who are allocated £400 per week as a maximum for a four bedroom home. There are only a handful at that price available in our boroughs but, if you are happy to move to the further reaches of Croydon, we found a nice four bed detached house near Coombe lane Tram Link. Of course you may not  be able to afford to get to work from there but then you are unemployed so it doesn’t matter does it? Oh you were hoping to find another job were you? Well  I am sure there will be plenty of opportunities for you in the New Addington area.

One problem the newly redundant may find, if they venture into the  East London Line boroughs, is that, despite having cheap flats available, not all private landlords will accept approaches from tenants on housing benefits. So the answer may well be, if you are a public sector worker, expecting to be given the sack any time soon, find your low-priced nest in advance of the axe. Landlords are more likely to take benefits payments from tenants they already know.

This rush to the East could well result in shortages and price rises and the mother Teresa of boroughs may be forced to turn people away, leaving them high and dry on the property front. So move now while stocks last.

Of course reality of the new housing benefit cap will be increasing social divisions across London as those who fall on hard times (usually for no fault of their own) are forced to move to the ‘joblossvilles’ around the periphery of the City. (see our lead article)

“On Yer Bike” was the slogan coined for the Thatcher era when the legendary Norman Tebbitt advised unemployed people to move to other areas in search of work. The slogan for the Osborne era could well become: “pick up your bed and walk”.

By Amy Lacey and EastLondonLines

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Photo: Anna Haswell

The demands of arts reporting can verge on the strange. I’m standing on a bleak, unpromising road, somewhere in the middle of an industrial estate at the edge of Peckham.

I’m looking for the Goldsmiths BA Media & Communications photography show, which, my friend says reassuringly over the phone, is taking place somewhere close by. To tell the truth, I’m a bit lost.

A quick Google Maps consultation later and I’m back on track, heading down the unhelpfully-unlabelled Rollins Road towards the Pigeon Wing, the venue for tonight’s private view.

This is truly an edgy location. So edgy, in fact, that if you’re not really sharp, you might not find it. Like the title of the exhibition, ‘Untitled (2010)’, it’s wilfully obscure, hidden around a corner in a maze of slightly grim south London streets. A solitary sandwich-board stands in the yard outside, guiding the way in.

A charmingly shabby red-brick industrial building with large, cloudy windows, The Pigeon Wing is a quintessentially hip art space that reclaims the rough, utilitarian environs of a disused warehouse in the name of culture. Loud music greets me as I climb the stairs past bicycles and dusty gas cannisters to the top floor, and enter a long, bright wooden-floored room where the show is in full swing.

Inside the exhibition space

The crowd is distinctively Goldsmiths: artfully-dressed boys and girls mingle to the strains of the Smiths. Most stand, but some gravitate towards a hotchpotch cluster of furniture.

Snowstorm fuzzes across the screen of a small TV in the centre of the room, then resolves itself into a smattering of tiny sportsmen – the reception’s a little dodgy but an eager huddle has gathered on the floor to watch the football, shouting encouragements and abuse at the England team.

Drinks are flowing and conversations bubbling. Shrieks of laughter and football-related rage puncture the air. A red vuvuzela stands incongruously on the refreshments table. On the windowsill, a jar of cigarette butts.

The photos themselves adorn three of the room’s walls, with a selection hanging from wires in the middle. Through the grimy windowpanes, the industrial landscape of southeast London is visible in the fading light of the evening.

The show’s subject matter incorporates a mixture of compelling portraiture and scenery, reflecting its nominated theme, ‘Urban landscape and its inhabitants.’

Work by Alexandra Seigle

I’m immediately drawn to the work of Alexandra Seigle. She presents stark black and white prints of people in the street: a trio of workmen gaze at the camera, their grubby clothes picked out in elegant contrast. In another frame, a gaggle of betting shop punters crowd together, drinks in hands, as a dog sniffs at their feet.

Further along, I find Kieran Jessel’s work, which is huge, and hung with bulldog clips on the end wall. His prints show the desolate landscapes of empty street corners and toytown-like housing estates.

In contrast, Ella Boynton’s work is displayed in a cluster of diverse second-hand frames. It shows cluttered, cosy interiors and their inhabitants, homing in on enigmatic details such as a mass of empty coffee cups laid out on a sideboard.

A sense of the minutiae of everyday life pervades many of the images on display, some of which, in a muted fashion, recall the work of Martin Parr. The images are often unmistakeably British, with a sympathetic eye that seems to convey a certain knowing affection for their subjects’ foibles.

From the show's poster

If the Goldsmiths Art department shows on Thursday were the big cheese, events-wise, then ‘Untitled (2010)’ is the alternative – a fact that is a slightly sore point among its highly-motivated artist-organisers.

“We’ve struggled with getting any support from college for this,” says Benjamin Mallek, whose work is on show across the room. “The resources go into the Art degree shows. But Media is important too! I think if you’re doing photography you should get support.”

But despite the difficulties, the DIY underpinnings of the exhibition are equally and unavoidably part of its charm. From the sequestered but exciting location to the enthusiastic presence of its creators, it retains a rough-and-ready quality that’s as endearing as it is surprising.

At one point in the evening, standing before a cluster of photographs, I look down, and am startled to discover a black cat slinking around my ankles. This is truly a unique show…

‘Untitled (2010)’ is open this weekend, 19-20 June, at The Pigeon Wing, SE15 1EP.

Find out more at The Pigeon Wing Website, or read our exhibition preview with reflections from some of the artists on their work.

See images from the exhibition on its official blog.