The Students’ Union (SU) may have fewer things to offer students as its grant suffers with inflation.

Each year the university gives a sum of money to the SU, the bloc grant, which, in addition to their other sources of income (the campus’ shops, its sales, the advertising on the student newspaper, the SU’s website and commercial stalls at the Freshers’ Fair) makes the SU possible to students.

This year’s bloc grant is £650,000 plus an extra £25,000 after negotiations from last year’s sabbatical officers with the university.

The union’s projected income for this year is £1,117,000.

The sum brought in by the bloc grant mostly covers staffing costs which are projected to £605,000.

All other expenses are estimated to be £589,000, which means that the Union’s expenses are an expected total of £1,194,000 while their income is forecast to the £1,117,000 previously mentioned.

The negotiations for next year’s grant will decide how much it will get, but the union has budgeted using the figure for the same amount as this year, as originally granted by the university, that is £650,000.

However, this figure is not attached to inflation, which means that while staff wages and prices in the SU’s bars and shops go the bloc grant will stay the same.

“We have to keep a close watch on our finances” says the union.

The union is looking to negotiate a stable bloc grant system with the university in order to be able to plan ahead and make decisions accordingly.

The union adds: “we would hope that we would be able to come to productive outcome that is better for students and for the Union, at the moment we are in a very uncertain place.”

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