LAG understands that many other advice organisations such as Law Centres® and independent advice organisations were included in the bids as partners to a Citizens Advice Bureau leading the bid. Responding to the announcement, the chief executive of Citizens Advice, Gillian Guy, said: ‘With demand for advice higher than ever, this one-off funding will help Bureaux up and down the country find innovative new ways of learning from each other, joining up services and finding ways of increasing sustainability through collaboration with local partners like AgeUK, Shelter and Law Centres.’ She also stressed the importance of the ‘over 22,000 volunteers who devote their time and expertise for free, week after week, to advise people who are struggling to pay their bills, feed their family and feel they have nowhere else to turn’.

‘While in these difficult times any money going to advice services should be welcomed, I am not convinced that this is money well spent. Only 20 per cent of the cash can go on the sort of frontline services that will have been lost due to the legal aid cuts. I would question where advice services are going to transition to: out of the frying pan and into the fire?’, said Steve Hynes, LAG’s director.