The Great North Air Ambulance at the scene of a Lake District rescue. Photo: GNAAS
A charity that runs an air ambulance in northern England faces having to find almost £1m for a new base after a blow revealed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his autumn statement.
The Great North Air Ambulance Service had applied for £1.9m from a fund generated from fines levied on banks’ malpractice.
But Philip Hammond announced in the Commons on Wednesday that the charity would receive just over half of the sum it requested for its new headquarters and centre of medical excellence.
The GNAAS’s helicopters are involved in numerous missions to airlift injured and ill outdoor enthusiasts from the hills and countryside of the Lake District, Yorkshire and the North-East each year.
The application for £1.9m was made to the Treasury, which controls the fund that holds fines imposed on banks for manipulating the Libor inter-bank lending rate. The Chancellor said the charity would get only £1m.
Philip Hammond made the announcement in his autumn statement. Photo: Ian Enness/Chatham House ![[CC-2.0]](/lib/img/layout/cc-attr.gif)
Grahame Pickering, chief executive of GNAAS, said: “Our vision remains to create a new base and a centre of medical excellence for the benefit of people of the North.
“We had applied for £1.9m funding through the Treasury. This isn’t Government money, but a fund which was generated through fines imposed on banks for malpractice. The £1m we have been allocated is a welcome boost towards this project, though the £900,000 shortfall leaves us with some work to do to reach our target.
“It’s a shame that the decision leaves something of a question mark over a project which will ultimately save lives and ease suffering of patients, young and old.
“However, we are well accustomed to overcoming such hurdles and will be re-examining our contingency options to determine how best to make our dream become a reality.”
The charity’s board of trustees will meet on Friday to assess the options available and a further announcement will be made in due course.
Penguin
27 November 2016This grant is required urgently.
Why should the public (me and you) pay for a public service?
If you think about it, we pay our taxes for the NHS, then pay our 'taxed income' to pay for the air ambulance. NHS on the cheap for the UK.
Perhaps the government should be woken up to the scam that they are placing on our valuable resource.
Should we all write to our MPs to criticise this action and that of the broken NHS ambulance system.
I was 'helicoptered out' in my long distant climbing career, in a foreign place. It saved my life and the group I was with had the benefit of not transporting me over 30 miles to a railhead.
This service is invaluable and should be paid for as road ambulances.
Well done to all concerned and long may you have the ability to serve all concerned.
Sheepy
29 November 2016As someone who works in financial services (not a bank) it is of no surprise to see politicians conning the public. You see it's alright to say fine the banks hand over the fines to good causes. Who do you imagine is paying the fines for the banks?...................Answer, their customers, who are? The general public. It's been even more bonkers when you consider that some of these banks are also owned by the public anyway(RBS & Lloyds).
The other big con has been the well over £1.5 Billion levied by the FCA across all financial services companies which the government keeps telling everyone goes to other good causes such as Armed Services charities. Problem is less than 10% has actually gone to the good causes, the rest has disappeared in to Treasury coffers.
Now I do run my own business and I've never been fined but I would have to say that if ever I was, then those costs would be passed on to my clients.
It is a fact that banks in the UK factor in the cost of regulation and expect penalties and fines. All they do is structure their businesses to take account of the cost by paying lower interest rates, charging higher mortgage and loan rates, charging for current accounts and increasing their other charges. It's not rocket science.
It's all an underhand way of collecting tax from the public without having to put up income tax, and of course everyone hates "the bankers," so it's a soft target.
Which ever way you slice it the public still pays.
Ian512
01 December 2016Interesting comments Sheepy and Penguin.