Aspire Housing is proud to be part of an alliance of over 440 organisations calling on the government to use dormant assets to establish a Community Wealth Fund, to enable it to achieve its ambition to ‘level up’ the country.
Our call comes as part of the first-ever Community Wealth Fund week (1 – 5 November 2021), marking the movement’s momentum and calling on even more organisations to campaign for investment in the communities that need it most.
The Community Wealth Fund would invest in the country’s most ‘left behind’ communities building the social infrastructure (places and spaces to meet, community organisations and local transport and digital connectivity) that would enable them to thrive socially and economically.
Funding would be:
- targeted at a hyper-local or neighbourhood level
- be long-term (between 10 – 15 years); and
- resident-led – with decisions made by local people
The fund would put communities in control of decision-making helping residents build confidence and capacity, ensuring they have the community services and facilities needed to improve their area and improving employment and health outcomes for residents.
The Community Wealth Fund Alliance, which comprises mostly civil society organisations and 40 local and combined authorities, is calling for dormant or unclaimed stocks, shares, bonds, insurance, and pension policies to be used to create the Fund.
The Dormant Assets Bill that will release these funds is currently progressing through parliament and the Alliance is asking the government to commit to them being used for the Community Wealth Fund either in the Bill or in the soon to be released Levelling Up White Paper.
Sinéad Butters, Group Chief Executive of Aspire Housing, said: “We’re delighted to support the lobby to create a Community Wealth Fund, targeting millions back into our communities from dormant assets.
“Supporting deprived communities is a fantastic idea, and for us, a critical step in helping to ensure our country shares equally in wealth created. After all, we all helped create it, so let’s all benefit from it.”
Organisations can sign up to support the Community Wealth Fund campaign at communitywealthfund.org.uk/signup or join the conversation using #CWFweek
