Commenting on Chancellor Alistair Darling MP’s re-announcement of £75 million of dormant bank account assets to create a new Social Investment Wholesale Bank in today’s Budget Jenny Willott said:
“This money has been announced before, but the Bank still hasn’t materialised. I’m glad that the Government seems to have made some progress on determining how the Bank will operate, but there is clearly a long way to go before it is up and running.
“Today’s re-announcement is little more than a political gimmick. Unless we start to see concrete movement soon, I remain to be convinced that this Bank will get up and running in time to help the sector through this difficult recession.
“This saga has been dragging on for ages. Rather than just re-announcing the money he already announced in the Pre-Budget Report in December, the Chancellor should have taken the opportunity today to make real progress towards making money available to the third sector as soon as possible.
