UK to raid dormant bank accounts

Money from dormant British bank accounts will be used to help fund community work by charities and voluntary groups that would otherwise struggle to secure funding, Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday.

As the coalition government slashes public spending to try to tackle a budget deficit running at 11 percent of national output, it has encouraged community groups and businesses to take on new powers to provide local services.

"We will create a Big Society Bank to help finance social enterprises, charities through inter-mediaries. ... It will be established using every penny of dormant bank and building society account money," Cameron said, according to excerpts from his speech.

"These unclaimed assets, alongside the private sector investment that we will leverage, will ... make available hundreds of millions of pounds of new finance to some of our most dynamic social organizations."

He said that the government needs to get rid of inefficient, centralized and bureaucratic ways of providing services.

"We've got to give professionals much more freedom and open up public services to new providers like charities, social enterprises and private companies so we get more innovation, diversity and responsiveness to public need," he said.

Speaking at the launch of a volunteer program in Liverpool to keep local museums open longer, he also said officials from the Department of Communities and Local Government will be made available to help such groups establish themselves. "This is a big advance for people power," he said.

Reuters