A technical consultation gathering opinions about community wealth fund(s) has been published by the government. In March, the government announced its intention to hold a technical consultation on the design of a community wealth fund. This consultation follows the announcement that community wealth fund(s) will be added as the fourth beneficiary of the expanded dormant assets scheme.
The consultation will be open for responses until 19th October 2023, and will seek answers to questions regarding the design of a Community Wealth Fund, covering specifics such as the size of community that should benefit and the nature of distribution of the funding.
Local Trust will be responding to the consultation on behalf of the CWFA outlining its vision for how a community wealth fund should work. The CWFA has been campaigning for the creation of a community wealth fund since 2018, advocating for investment in vital community infrastructure and activities in the most deprived and ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods across England. It should nurture and create a strong social fabric, strengthening the sense of local pride in these neglected areas. The consultation sets out that the fund will initially focus on small towns of less than 20,000 residents. Learnings from programmes like Big Local suggest that a neighbourhood focus is essential if you are looking to build community infrastructure and mobilise local people.
The CWFA campaign so far has been very successful, securing the consideration of a community wealth fund in the dormant assets consultation, leading to a government decision to create the fund. The government’s decision largely aligned with what the CWFA have been asking for (see more here), but they have yet to decide the specifics of the fund.
These specifics will be decided in this 4 week technical consultation. The CWFA has and will continue to campaign for funding to be devolved directly to residents of the most deprived areas.
You can read more about the consultation, here. We look forward to sharing with you our recommendations and will update you once we have completed and submitted our recommendations to the consultation.