Government to ‘Unlock’ £440m from Dormant Assets to Benefit Communities in England

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has published its Dormant Assets Scheme Strategy and announced £440 million that would otherwise be sitting idle is going to be ‘unlocked’ to benefit communities across England.

The Dormant Assets scheme redirects money from long-unused financial accounts to social causes. To date, over £750 million worth of dormant assets has been allocated to good causes (youth, financial inclusion and social investment wholesalers) across England, and has been delivered by four independent, expert organisations: Better Society Capital, Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, Fair4All Finance and Youth Futures Foundation.

The current amount (£440 million) will be distributed as follows:

• £132.5 million for young people with funding going to services, facilities and opportunities to provide them with the skills and resources needed to succeed.
• £132.5 million for financial inclusion and education, equipping individuals with the tools and knowledge to build financial security.
• £87.5 million for social investment to strengthen the financial resilience of the voluntary sector. This programme of work will be delivered by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment.
  • £12 million is to be used to catalyse social investment opportunities for Black and Ethnically Minoritised communities via the Pathway Fund.
  • At least £12.5 million is to enable organisations that support improved youth outcomes to build resilience and expand their impact.
• £87.5 million for community wealth funds, which will empower local people to make decisions about their communities, creating stronger neighbourhoods. This funding will be delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund who are also contributing an additional £87.5 million of Lottery funding to the programme. Further details on this new initiative are expected to be shortly.

Any funding opportunities to which groups can apply directly will be reported when the information becomes available.

In the meantime, groups that would like to read the full Dormant Assets Scheme Strategy can find it on GOV.UK.

FYI for future ref – please see info below and via: Dormant Assets Scheme Strategy – GOV.UK