Equality chief predicts 50% budget cut

From Sunil Peck with Labour in Manchester

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will lose fifty per cent of its funding under the coalition government’s budget cuts, the body’s chair has said.

The news comes at the time when the new Equality Act comes into force bringing more rights to equal treatment to disabled people. The Act is also said to make bringing anti-discrimination cases easier.

According to a leaked cabinet office document, the future of the EHRC is “under review”.

But during a break in a fringe event at the Labour conference in which delegates discussed the future of social care, Trevor Phillips had a conversation with Richard Howitt MEP and shadow minister for care services Barbara Keeley where he was asked about the future of the EHRC.

He said “I think what they will do is take half our money away”. He also said that although he thought that the commission would survive, he was concerned that the coalition government would take some of its powers away.

When Disability Now approached the EHRC for a response to its chair’s comments, a spokeswoman said: "The Commission will not comment on tittle-tattle."