Lloyds Bank Foundation – Good Place to Live: New Beginnings Fund

Lloyds Bank Foundation are launching the New Beginnings Fund, investing £8 million in homelessness prevention. This fund will work with community organisations that are supporting people at key turning points in their lives when the risk of homelessness is highest, including people leaving the prison system, domestic abuse survivors, young adults leaving care and individuals leaving the asylum system on securing leave to remain in the UK.

By providing the right support at the right time, organisations can help prevent homelessness before it happens and reduce the need for crisis intervention.

Across the lifetime of their strategy, they will launch more funding opportunities, proactively backing practical solutions and working towards a future where everyone has a home that’s a good place to live.

Through this fund, they are focusing on four major life moments where the evidence shows people face a heightened risk of homelessness.  They want to back organisations that provide the right support at the right time, to help people before they reach crisis point.

They are funding work that supports people who are leaving:

• prison
• the care system
• an abusive relationship
• the asylum system on securing the right to remain

They will work with charities, charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) and Community Interests Companies (CIC) whose main purpose is to support people through one of these turning points. Beyond housing, this support could take many forms, such as immigration, welfare, or health advice. Any immediate support will lead to longer-term in-depth support, enabling people to navigate this change and have more control, connections, opportunities and wellbeing in their lives.

Successful organisations will receive an unrestricted grant of up to £200,000 over four years, alongside tailored development support, practical tools and valuable connections. Together, these will strengthen your organisation, build on what’s already working, and increase impact for the people and communities you serve.

Because the funding is unrestricted, you can use it in the ways that best support your organisation’s mission and goals. This gives you the flexibility to invest where it is needed most and respond to the opportunities and challenges you face as you work towards preventing homelessness.

They offer two types of grants:

• A £100,000 grant – made up of four £25,000 annual payments – for organisations with an annual income less than £100,000
• A £200,000 grant – made up of four £50,000 annual payments – for organisations with an annual income between £100,000 and £2 million

Registered Charities and CIOs must:

• Be registered as a charity or a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) with the Charity Commission in England and Wales or the Index for Charities registered in the Isle of Man. They will ask for your charity registration number at the start of your application.
• Have at least one set of annual accounts showing as ‘received’ on the Charity Commission website, covering a twelve-month operating period. If you are based in the Isle of Man, They will ask you to submit your latest set of accounts.
• Have a Board of at least three trustees in place who are not related to other Board members and have their names appearing on your Charity Commission records.

Or, if you are a Community Interest Companies:

• Be Limited by Guarantee or Limited by Shares under Schedule 2 and be registered with Companies House. They will review your Articles of Association that show you have an asset lock in place and that you have named the organisation that will receive the company’s assets on dissolution.
• Have at least one set of annual accounts filed with Companies House that show a track record of frontline delivery. You must also have filed your CIC Annual Report CIC34 for the last year. They will ask you to submit your profit and loss account for your latest financial year.
• Have at least three unrelated Directors sitting on your Board who are registered with Companies House.
• No Director should hold more than 50% of the company’s voting rights, have significant control or have the sole right to remove other Directors.

All organisations MUST:

• Be based and working in England, Wales, or the Isle of Man. Most of your organisation’s time and money is spent on activities and helping people living in England and/or Wales and/or the Isle of Man.
• Have an annual income of between £25,000 and £2 million in its last set of published accounts. This is total income and, in the case of consolidated accounts, should cover all entities within those accounts.
• Have a bank account in the name of the organisation with unrelated signatories. If the application is successful, the grant must be paid into this account.
• Most people in positions of power (including directors/trustees, the CEO and senior managers) must not be related nor live at the same address. Where there are related parties, they will consider the relationship, conflicts of interest and loyalty, the balance of power of the related directors/trustees, and how this is managed.
• Be mainly focused on working with ex-offenders/young offenders, care-experienced young people (including unaccompanied seeking asylum children), survivors of domestic abuse or asylum seekers and refugees.  See the FAQs for what we mean by this.
• Have a track record of delivering services, for at least one year, for people who are one or more of the above turning points. You must currently be delivering these services. If your organisation has recently merged, then this must apply to at least one organisation pre-merger.
• Not include religious activity as a part of the services delivered unless the organisation has been established to support people specifically of that faith.
• If you provide therapy/counselling as part of your services, the individuals providing the therapy/counselling must hold registration with one of the Professional Standards Authority accredited registers for counselling and psychotherapy and your organisation must have a process in place for checking their registration on a regular basis.
• If you provide immigration advice as part of your services, your organisation and the individual staff offering advice must be registered with the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA, formerly OISC).
• Have a safeguarding policy in place. We will explore what safeguarding means to your organisation, how it fits with your mission and values and your approach to safeguarding across your organisation.
• Have a Designated Safeguarding Lead/ Officer (DSL/O). This person will be accountable for your safeguarding practice and will be appropriately trained. We expect the DSL/O to have undertaken “Designated Safeguarding Lead training” This may be called as such or may be called Level 3 training in England or Level C training in Wales.
• Hold Public Liability Insurance.
• Be an independent organisation. They will look at any formal associations you have with other organisations, parent bodies, or group structures. We will check that the Board or Directors of the applicant organisation has full control over its work and any conflicts of interest.
• If you have a live grant with Lloyds Bank Foundation, it must end before 9th September 2027.

For the New Beginnings programme, they will not provide funding for the following organisations:

• Organisations that are not registered charities, charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) or community interest companies (CICs) registered in England or Wales.
• Infrastructure or umbrella organisations whose primary purpose is to support other organisations.
• Organisations whose primary purpose is to distribute funding to individuals or other organisations. This includes organisations that spend more than 50% of their annual expenditure on grants.
• Organisations whose work is carried out predominantly outside England and Wales.
• Organisations where participation in faith-based activities forms part of the support they provide, unless the organisation exists specifically to support people of that faith.
• Hospitals, health authorities and hospices.
• Emergency and rescue services.
• Schools, colleges and universities.

If you’re unsure whether your organisation is eligible, they encourage you to contact a member of their team before applying.