The UK’s social investment sector is set to receive £87.5m from the expanded Dormant Assets Scheme between 2024 and 2028, the UK Government has announced.
A campaign launched last year by Big Society Capital, Social Enterprise UK and others floated the idea of using £50m of dormant asset funding each year over 10 years to develop a ‘community enterprise growth plan’. The final amount the government decided to allocate is far less than this.
The scale of the need and opportunity to leverage dormant assets far exceeds quotas
The Dormant Assets Scheme will reunite people who have lost financial assets and, if the money remains unclaimed, use it to support social and environmental initiatives across the UK. Since its creation in 2011, the scheme has provided almost £1 billion to social and environmental causes across the UK.
Initially, the scheme was limited to funds held in bank and building association accounts, but last year it was expanded to include insurance policies, pensions, investment management and securities, and will be rolled out across the UK in the coming years. £880m could be up for grabs. England will receive just under 84% of this, amounting to around £738m.
Following a public consultation, the government in March allocated the English part of the expanded scheme to four “legitimate purposes”: young people, financial inclusion, social investment wholesalers (including big society capital and access); He announced that he would allocate the money to a newly established organization. Community Wealth Fund.
The government had not revealed how much money would go to each of these four “good causes” until the Department for Culture, Media and Sport published a statement on its website last week. It said it intended to distribute the additional £350m of funding, which will be made available between 2024 and 2028, equally between the four departments, with each receiving £87.5m.
Privately, some within the UK social investment movement expressed disappointment that the funding was lower than expected, but publicly social investment leaders welcomed the news of further funding. He welcomed the move, but called on the government to work with the sector to unlock further investment potential.
Stephen Moores (pictured), CEO of Big Society Capital, which was set up in 2012 with a £425m investment from dormant assets, said:
“As you all know, social issues remain strong in the UK and public funding remains constrained, so we are calling on all governments to work with us and the social impact investing sector to do more. We urge you to free up private capital to improve the lives of people across our country.”
Community enterprise growth plan
Mr Moores said social investment could mobilize further capital from private investors, “multiplying” its impact, with more than £5 of capital freed up for every £1 of dormant assets invested. emphasized.
Last year, a coalition of organizations including Social Enterprise UK, Big Society Capital and Access and the Social Investment Foundation published a series of recommendations, Community – Submitted an enterprise growth plan. -Behind the scenes of the community.
The plan proposes to leverage dormant asset funding of £50m a year over 10 years, for a total of £500m.
Access CEO Seb Ellsworth (pictured) said he was pleased with the news of the allocation, but added: It can be customized to suit the needs of charities and social enterprises.
“We are working closely with DCMS to ensure that this funding invests and grows in places and communities most affected by long-term economic decline, particularly by leveraging funding from private and philanthropic sources. We look forward to determining how we can unleash it.”
Top image: Liverpool’s Homebaked Community Bakery receives funding from Access and receives funding from the first tranche of dormant assets.
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