About 70 per cent of the money raised by the Big Lottery Fund from sales of tickets goes to the voluntary sector, to support a huge range of good causes. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations, together with its sister organisations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, believes that this should be raised to 100 per cent.

A number of things have led us to this conclusion. Recently Big Lottery Fund money that was meant for charities was raided by the Government and put towards the Olympic Games. An estimated £400 million was taken from the distributors to the voluntary sector and given towards hosting the event. We have secured assurances from the Government that there are no more raids on the Big Lottery Fund planned to pay for the Olympics but we feel that this does not go far enough in helping charities through the tough economic times ahead.

We are already seeing the beginnings of a reduction in charitable giving. I have no doubt that over the period of recession the money flowing into the sector will decrease. While individual philanthropy holds up relatively well in a recession, corporate giving is certain to go down – companies, especially in the financial sector, are going through difficult times and cannot afford to support charities as generously as they have in the past.

This will result in a significant drop in income to charities. Like all organisations, final-salary pension schemes will suffer. Charities with assets may still suffer a cashflow problem if they are unable to borrow. Trading through charity shops or social enterprise is also likely to decrease.

We want to minimise the impact of the downturn on the many valuable causes supported by the sector. Giving 100 per cent of lottery money to the charity sector is a good way to do this. The 30 per cent that currently goes to the public sector goes to schemes in areas such as education, skills creation and health. But public sector organisations working with the local community should be part of mainstream public spending systems.

That’s for the public sector to fund through alternative funding processes. There is no case to fund the public sector through the Big Lottery Fund. The voluntary sector is also very involved in community education and health, and money could still be put into projects in those areas. This is our money.

The other point is that need goes up during a recession – debt, homelessness, unemployment and drug and alcohol addiction all rise. This means that there will be a lot of extra pressure on some charities. In particular, homelessness charities, social housing organisations and debt advice charities will be very much in demand.

I don’t see why it would not be possible to allocate a greater share of the funds to organisations working in these fields Statutory funding for charities accounts for 40 per cent of the voluntary sector’s annual income, roughly the same as individual giving. It is very important that grants and contracts are protected during this time.

The Government has continually expressed its support for the work of the voluntary sector. Pledging 100 per cent of big lottery funding would be a simple way to demonstrate this.

Stuart Etherington is the chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations

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