I attended the Community Grants Program guidance event yesterday for North West in Manchester, and was very disappointed that Tribal failed to attend the event.

What sort of message does this send out to northern community groups, particularly those that are not experienced in applying for this type of funding? It also transpired that Tribal will scrutinise bids before DCLG & HCA sit down and identify successful schemes. The worry from a lot of the community groups yesterday was that Tribal will not have the specific knowledge to appreciate which schemes represents good value for money, or demonstrates deliverability. Many of the partners expressed that they couldn't see the point in spending the time, and resource, in putting together a bid only for it to be interpreted in the wrong way.

The government preaches a lot about localism and engaging communities, yesterday’s meeting has had the complete opposite effect. Although I do not work for a community group, I attended the meeting as my organisation is looking to support a local community group to make a bid. Our partner and others at the meeting left very unsatisfied. If anyone attended another event in UK where Tribal were present, I would be interested to hear what they’ve said?