Greenwich Community Law Centre is facing closure after the local council axed its funding.

The London borough’s cabinet decided last week to discontinue an annual grant of nearly £200,000. Cash will instead be set aside for the provision of legal advice by Citizens Advice, Greenwich Housing Rights and Plumstead Community Law Centre.

The decision means the charity, which employs seven legally trained staff and has around 750 open cases, only has enough money to last until the end of the month.

Greenwich CLC has been running for 27 years and offers two weekly drop-in sessions and free legal advice over the phone.

Julie Bishop, director of the Law Centres Federation, said the centre has a legal aid contract and will be looking to see how it can keep going.

But she warned that the 10% cuts to legal aid fees that will be introduced on 1 October leave law centres ‘very vulnerable’.

Of the 54 law centres, eight receive 75% or more of their funding from legal aid. Bishop warned that those centres did not have 10% margins and will struggle to survive once the cuts take effect.

The federation warned in August that a third of law centres may go under as a result of government cuts.