Social investment and Dormant Assets

With the publication of the Dormant Assets Strategy, it has been confirmed that Access will receive £87.5 million to grow social investment in underserved places and communities. 

This includes: 

• At least £12.5 million earmarked to support youth-focused organisations
• £12 million of scale-up funding for a Black and Ethnically Minoritised-led social investment fund, Pathway Fund. 

Access will oversee the allocation of £87.5 million of dormant assets funding to social investment, working closely with partners to deliver on the Dormant Assets Strategy and the aspirations set out in the Community Enterprise Growth Plan (CEGP). 

The CEGP seeks to maximise investment in community enterprises and mission-driven businesses, particularly in the places and communities most affected by long-term economic decline. 

Access is a wholesaler of grant subsidy into social investment funds and other initiatives. We do not make funding available to charities and social enterprises directly. If you are a charity or social enterprise looking for support or to find out more about social investment please visit Good Finance.

The consultation on Dormant Assets is now closed. It ran for six weeks between 2 June and 15 July. 

During this period, we heard from organisations across the social investment market, the VCSE sector, and other interested stakeholders. 

Thank you to everyone who took part in the consultation. We’re now carefully reviewing all the feedback — from written submissions to focus group conversations. 

Over the coming weeks, this input will help shape our final investment policy and inform how the £87.5 million in Dormant Assets is allocated to support community-based charities and social enterprises.

We’ll share a summary of what we heard, along with our next steps, over the summer before opening to applications from potential delivery partners. 

Access is a wholesaler of grant subsidy into social investment funds and other initiatives. We do not make funding available to charities and social enterprises directly. If you are a charity or social enterprise looking for support or to find out more about social investment please visit Good Finance.

The consultation is now closed — but you can still explore the materials

Although the consultation has now closed, you can still view the documents we shared during the process.

The consultation invited input from across the social investment, social enterprise, civil society, and philanthropic sectors to help shape the next phase of Dormant Assets funding. 

While we are no longer collecting responses, the resources below remain available for reference.

1. Investment Approach

During the consultation, we’ve published two key documents:

• Investment Approach – a detailed version, set out in numbered sections to make it easier to respond.
• A shorter version of the Investment Approach – a shorter version of the same document, with two sections on application processes removed. This may be more relevant for those who don’t plan to apply directly to Access for funding.

2. Webinar

We hosted two webinars earlier on in the consultation period (18 June and 23 June) to talk through the Investment Approach and answer questions. These sessions were open to all and offered a chance to ask questions anonymously.

Our first webinar was recorded - you can watch the recording here and you can download the slide deck here or read the webinar questions and answers here.