In a Charity Commission conference supported by the BBC, third sector bosses were today urged to exploit media innovations in order to reach a wider target audience.

Social networking sites, blogs, broadband TV and other global advances that broaden the scope of the internet should be employed by modern charities to encourage greater involvement in good causes, guests at the event were told. (more…)

A new allocation system for council housing in Bristol goes live today (March 16th).

The system places all applicants for housing into one of five bands, depending on the urgency of their case. (more…)

Representatives from the voluntary sector have applauded the government’s decision to protect Lottery resources earmarked for charities as it seeks to fund the Olympics.

Tessa Jowell said yesterday in Parliament that after 2009 a transfer of £425 million will come from the third of Big Lottery Fund resources which would have gone to statutory agencies. (more…)

A report is recommending radical new ideas to alleviate Britain’s housing shortage – particularly for the less well-off.

In the report, which was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Professor Duncan Maclennan finds that new housing provision for low income households lies well below the output of the mid-1990s. (more…)

Sunderland has won funding to pioneer a digital initiative for the benefit of the socially excluded.

The city was selected from a pool of ten finalists for the Digital Challenge competition. Each presented their vision for a digitally enabled society which would better meet the needs of local communities and citizens. (more…)