Will the Welsh Government utilise section 19 of The Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008 to ensure funding from the Dormant Assets Act 2022 is used to fund community action organisations in Wales, especially in South Wales Central?
The Dormant Assets Act 2022 expanded the definition of a ‘dormant asset’ to include assets from the insurance, wealth management, securities and pensions sectors. It is estimated that this could release a further £880 million for good causes across the UK, a proportion of which will come to Wales.
With the expansion of the scheme I felt the time was right to revisit our high level policy guidelines. We therefore held a consultation which ran from 06 December 2023 to 28 February 2024 inviting views on future funding priorities.
I can confirm that community action is one of the options under consideration - the consultation proposed four potential funding areas: children and young people, the climate and nature emergencies, financial inclusion, and community action. It is unlikely that the Welsh Government will be able to fund all four purposes, and we will need to prioritise. The views expressed in response to the consultation will help us to decide.
We received a large number of submissions and are currently analysing them. We intend to publish a summary of responses on the Welsh Government website by the end of May 2024. This will outline the results of the consultation and our next steps.
Once we have determined the new funding priorities, the Welsh Government will issue refreshed policy guidelines to the National Lottery Community Fund, which allocates the dormant assets scheme funds in Wales on our behalf.
The National Lottery Community Fund is responsible for deciding how to distribute the funding in accordance with our high level guidelines. They use their standard funding development process to do this, which includes further consultation with relevant stakeholders. The design of any funding schemes must take into account the additionality principle which means that dormant assets funding can only fund projects that would otherwise not be funded by government at a national, regional or local level.
Your constituents in South Wales Central will be able to apply for any grants that are set up, if they meet the eligibility criteria.