News article

New Building Better Opportunities Fund from Big Lottery (England)

Subject to approval from the European Commission, the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) is planning to put up to £260m of Lottery funds against a similar figure from the European Social Fund (ESF) 2014-2020 in order to support communities and people most in need across England. Projects delivering against the ‘Promoting Social Inclusion and Combating Poverty' part of the ESF can receive funding in Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas according to local priorities, which have been set by the LEPs. This could support projects ranging from improving employability for the most disadvantaged; helping those with multiple and complex needs, to improving financial literacy. LEP area partnerships have made provisional decisions about how much of their ESF allocation to devote to this strand of work, meaning that the amount of main funding available will vary widely across different areas. Ahead of the main funding becoming available from 2015, BIG will also offer Lottery development funding in each of the LEP areas it is working with.