Supplementary memorandum from the Big
Lottery Fund (Formerly the New Opportunities Fund)
Questions 13 to 17 and 117 (Mrs Browning): Geographic
locations of the eight rural districts chosen for Countryside
Communities
The Committee asked for further details about
the availability of funding by the Big Lottery Fund in rural areas
and the relationship to the Community Fund's Countryside Communities
Initiative. The Committee was concerned that only the eight
rural areas covered by the initiative could apply for and receive
grants.
Countryside Communities is a small initiative
targeted at eight rural areas, which are both disadvantaged and
have not historically received their fair share of Community Fund
grants. The initiative is an addition to the Fair Share programme
(a joint programme run by the New Opportunities Fund and the Community
Fund which aimed to target Lottery funds on disadvantaged areas
that had not received their fair share of Lottery money) and came
partly as a response to concerns from rural stakeholders that
rural areas were under-represented in that programme. Through
Countryside Communities, the Community Fund made a commitment
to invest £14 million in voluntary and community group activity
in eight rural districts between 2002 and 2007. The districts
are:
— Shepway, Kent
— Dover, Kent
— King's Lynn and West Norfolk
— Fenland, Cambridgeshire
— North Norfolk
— Boston, Lincolnshire
— West Lindsey, Lincolnshire
— Sedgemoor, Somerset.
The Big Lottery Fund, like its predecessors,
is committed to ensuring fair and equal access to our funding.
Countryside Communities provides targeted assistance to
eight areas which have missed out in the past. This is not to
the detriment of other rural areas, which continue to be able
to access funding through other Big Lottery Fund programmes. In
identifying areas on which to target our efforts, Big Lottery
Fund uses a robust methodology which combines data on disadvantage
(using the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000, a standard measure
used by the Government and Local Authorities) and Lottery funding
per head. The eight areas targeted by Countryside Communities
were identified using a methodology similar to that of Fair Share,
which was agreed with the Countryside Commission.
To enable the Fund to launch new programmes,
the current programme for the voluntary and community sector (formerly
known as Community Fund's Medium, Large and Strategic Grant programmes)
will close to applications on 31 May 2005. However, the commitment
made under Countryside Communities will remain. When the
new programmes open, they will take up the targets for each of
the eight districts and make grants to meet these targets (probably
over the period 2005-07).
The Big Lottery Fund will distribute half of
all good cause Lottery money and is currently consulting on the
range of new funding programmes that will be run. Some of the
funding will be targeted in various ways on disadvantaged groups
of people but, since a large proportion of Lottery players come
from those groups, this is entirely justified. However, it is
envisaged that there will continue to be significant funding available
for every area across the UK, whether rural or urban. Spend will
continue to be monitored by region and local authority area.
Stephen Dunmore
Chief Executive
25 January 2005
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