Community Membership body, Locality, has just released a report titled The Power of our Network, that highlights that, although many local community organisations are struggling, many others have managed to remain resilient and agile in a large part thanks to their extended networks, despite the financial losses many have been hit with in 2020.

The report is based on a sample of 200 Locality members and was carried out between July and September of this year.

The report shows that 41% of community organisations were expecting to lose at least a quarter of their income by January ’21, with that figure increasing to 59% for organisations whom trading makes up over half of their income.

It’s not just the increased financial pressure though. 44% of community organisations also reported that at a time when they were receiving substantially less money, demand for their services were increasing, in many instances by over a third year on year.

Those figures also need to be taken into consideration with the fact that over a fifth or the respondents had had to reduce their staffing levels over the same period.

Locality’s report predicts that local lockdowns and social distancing measures will continue to affect local community organisations income generation abilities, with increasing pressures on the local authorities finances will affect the number of grants and contracts available.

Since the publishing of the report, Locality has been calling on the Government to use new funding opportunities (such as the £4bn Levelling Up fund) to invest further in the UK’s social infrastructure, putting communities in charge of how they can best spend investments and empower local renewals and recoveries.