£3.2 billion of Lottery money 'still unspent'

Howard Lake | 24 May 2003 | News

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• Giving/Philanthropy

The Observer reports today that £3.2 billion is lying unspent in the Department of Culture’s National Lottery Distribution Fund.

Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, promised in March 2002 that the then underpend of £3.5 billion would be halved by 2004. Fourteen months on, only £300 million has been shaved off this figure. The government had originally estimated that reserves of around £1.5 billion would be necessary.

According to the Observer, the Heritage Lottery Fund has spent only just over half of its allocated £2.2bn since the Lottery started. The New Opportunities Fund has £856 million in unspent reserves, the Sports Council £307 million, the Community Fund £280 million, the Arts Council £235 million and the Film Council £73 million.

A Department of Culture spokesman told The Observer: “all the money is committed to projects.”

Read “Lottery’s £3bn cash mountain” by Antony Barnett at The Observer.

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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.