Record awards hand-out in 2002

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Lottery sales may be on the way down, but more grants were made last year than at any time since the lottery began in 1995. This finding emerges from Lottery Monitor’s latest annual analysis of lottery awards data, published in this issue. The 15 UK distributors made 26,500 grants during 2002, compared with 7,300 during 1996, the first full year of grant-giving. The numbers of awards had dropped in 2001 largely because of Awards for All England’s poor performance, but a big push last year on small grants has helped create the record number overall and a separate all-time high of 18,200 for the number of awards up to £5,000. The UK average hand-out during 2002 was equivalent to £21.54 per adult, but the biggest winners were Yorkshire & Humberside (£26.67), the NorthEast (£26.51) and Wales (£26.42). London still dominates the share-out with £28.13 per head, but its over-representation is continuing to decline steadily. 2002’s biggest loser was the South-East, receiving £13.78 per adult.

Two London authorities (Westminster and the City) have wildly disproportionate levels of lottery funding, largely because of the value of ‘national’ awards located within their boundaries. Leaving aside these two, the London Borough of Camden stays top of the table with a cumulative £864.79 lottery funding per person (95-2002). Contrast this with the bottom-placed district of Rochford in Essex, where the figure is £13.82.