Charities and bureaucracy - time to cut the red tape

Today's Financial Times reports that the National Audit Office has found that the “baroque complexity” of government funding is jeopardising plans to give charities a bigger role in delivering public services.

The NAO study of 12 large charities found that on average, the charities estimated they each spent £381,000 a year simply managing these multiple funding streams, which include Whitehall departments, local authorities and National Health Service bodies.

Each charity had between 95 and more than 4,000 separate funding relationships with public bodies.
If the big businesses of the charity world are entangled in red tape, just think how the smaller charities struggle.

When auditors think that red tape is unreasonable, something should be done.