E Midlands Lottery joins up (almost)

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In a step that brings practical cooperation between Lottery boards closer, there is to be a single E Midlands Lottery office up and running by October. The building in Nottingham will house the regional operations of the Community Fund, NOF, the Arts Council of England and the Heritage Lottery Fund. It will also be home to the England Awards for All HQ, and the Community Fund’s old England office HQ, now reconstituted as its strategic grants team. The only non-participant in the regional set-up is Sport England. A spokesperson for Sport England said their decision had been based on three main factors. The distributor is reviewing its structure and organisation at the moment and expects to become more devolved, but doesn’t yet know the extent and shape of this. Secondly, there is a long lease on the existing regional office. And third, they considered the joint premises to have poor car-parking and disabled access. Other parties involved suggest that the car-parking problem seemed to be the main concern. It is understood that the invitation remains open for Sport England to take up residence at a later stage if it changes its mind.

The idea for the joint office came out of the Community Fund’s decision last autumn to rationalise its operations in response to its tighter budgets. Richard Gutch, CF’s director of operations, said: ‘We were reviewing our own office arrangements and thought this was a great opportunity to see if any other distributor was interested.’ The sharing of premises doesn’t signify any deeper joint working – at least not yet. But as Gutch says, this is ‘to be explored over time’.