New minister pledges to ‘monitor rising pressures’ for charities

Recently-appointed minister for Civil Society, Stuart Andrew, has told charities that he is “committed to listening” to their views and will monitor their rising costs in his maiden speech to the sector. Speaking at the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) Conference yesterday, Andrew said he was aware that trusts and foundations “are seeing increased demand, and organisations – from small to large – are facing higher energy prices”. He vowed to “continue to engage constructively across the civil society sector to monitor the impact of rising costs and pressures”. “In order to be resilient, to be truly resilient in a way that allows us to ‘spring back’, we also need strong foundations to ensure our impact is sustainable,” he said. Last month, the government ran a consultation with charities and other sectors on potential support for energy bills after the Energy Bill Relief Scheme ends on 31 March 2023.