Voluntary Sector awaits answer on plea for extra council funds

Tuesday March 17th 2026

Voluntary Sector Gateway, Bathgate

Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville

West Lothian’s Voluntary Sector Gateway has had no word on increased funding it made a plea for in the run up to this year’s budget.

The Gateway, which acts as the umbrella organisation for the Third Sector “made the case” for a 2.9% lift in funding in line with the increase given to the council by Holyrood.

According to the CEO of the body, the sector “does face significant challenges.”

Rising costs are affecting most groups. The Voluntary Sector Gateway West Lothian (VSGWL) receives a grant from the Scottish Government Third Sector Unit and received £63,770 from West Lothian Council in 2023/24.

At a meeting of the Economy, Community Empowerment and Wealth Building PDSP Alan McCloskey the CEO of the Gateway answered a question on funding from Councillor Sally Pattle.

“While acknowledging the pressures on Council budgets, Sector reps made a strong case for the 2.9% Scottish Government increase in local government funding to be similarly applied to the Third Sector.”

He added that reps had attended all of the special pre budget meetings of the Policy Development and Scrutiny panels to press the case for an uplift.

“We continue to press for that money because investment in the sector is absolutely vertical and without that there may well not be a Third Sector and the number of groups that exist the sector does face significant challenges.

“I have raised the question at this PDSP. We have made the case it was recorded and reported but we have not had an answer. We await a response.”

Councillor Andrew Miller said: “I think it’s unfortunate we haven’t been able to increase voluntary sector funds in line with inflation. I think voluntary organisations, while applications are fairly stable they all have increasing costs. We do need to think carefully about how we keep these organisations thriving.

“I would hope the council would consider looking at this again at the six month point.”

Chair of the PDSP, deputy council leader Susan Manion said: “It is something we need to be very mindful of and we need to look at the investments going forward.”