abrdn Financial Fairness Trust: Climate Change and Household Finances in the UK

Overview

This new programme sits alongside their existing funding programmes. Organisations can still apply to these, and details can be found here.

The context of the Climate Change and Household Finances in the UK programme

Along with many others they recognise the grave threat that climate change presents to all of us. What has been less present in this debate has been the impact of climate change on the living standards of people on low-to-middle incomes. The Trust therefore aims to fund more research, policy work and campaigning activities that will protect and improve the finances of people on low-to-middle incomes as the UK adapts to climate change and works towards meeting Net Zero targets.

They also want to support further collaboration between organisations working on environmental issues and those working on living standards. It is vital that the UK’s Net Zero transition agenda takes full account of the impacts of policy change on people on low-to-middle incomes.

As with their existing funding programmes, they aim to fund work that has the potential to lead to structural policy change at the national level. They are highly unlikely to fund work focussed on changing individual behaviour.

The funding process

The Climate Change and Household Finances in the UK fund can be applied to through their open funding rounds held annually in February and June. The fund follows the same funding process as their existing funding programmes focussed on income, spending and assets.

Criteria

Their existing criteria apply to this funding round. Additionally:

• Applications for Climate Change and Household Finances grants can be across any of their three existing programme areas: income; assets; spending.
• There is no minimum or maximum funding allocation per programme, so applicants are encouraged to submit to whichever programme seems the best fit for their proposal. Some proposals will fit within multiple programmes.

Areas of special interest

They are particularly interested in applications to carry out research, policy and campaigning work on the following areas:

• Transport
  • Work to improve our transport infrastructure towards greener transport, especially affordable and accessible public transport, to reduce costs for low-to-middle income households. ~They are also interested in research and policy work on the impact on public finances and the distributional impact of reforms to existing taxation related to transport, such as fuel duty revenue or aviation taxes.
• Consumerism
  • They are interested in work that acknowledges a significant reduction in consumption is needed, without making it impossible for low-to-middle income people to purchase goods and services to meet their needs properly. They are keen to support work to examine consumption inequalities or to explore the potential ramifications for products such as home insurance, which may not be fit for purpose to cope with increased climate-related risks.
• Energy use
  • While there is Government funding available to support households with insulation and transitioning to sustainable energy usage, current policies have not yet resulted in the scale and speed of take up required. Delivery of a number of schemes has been problematic. The upfront costs of installing heat pumps and retrofitting homes with insulation are prohibitive for many. They are interested in solutions that are appropriate to housing tenure and ensure the right support for low-income owner occupiers.
• Labour market transitions
  • Household incomes and access to employment is at stake in the transition to ‘green’ jobs from carbon-based sectors. Industrial strategy will play a critical role in the transition to Net Zero, and there will be opportunities to advocate for better paid work, with improved conditions. They are interested in policy work to set out the training needs to ensure the UK has sufficient workers with the correct skills in the right places to enable a transition to Net Zero.
• Scotland and UK-wide work
  • They will fund work that is UK-wide and/or Scotland-wide. As a Scottish charity, they welcome proposals focussed on Scotland, particularly given the challenges posed by the historic relationship of the Scottish economy to fossil fuel production.
• Other Net Zero and financial wellbeing themes
  • They will consider applications for policy and campaigning work on other relevant themes for Net Zero and financial wellbeing, as long as your proposed work meets their general funding criteria and the criteria of this fund.

How much funding is available?

This programme comes within their usual grants funding. As a general guide, they plan to make grants totalling up to £3m in 2024. Please see ‘How much you can apply for’ on page 7 of their Funding Guidelines, about individual grant size and duration.

There is no minimum or maximum size of grant and the amount you request should be the amount you need.

Their grants usually range between £10,000 and £200,000, with most between £50,000 to £120,000 in total.

They sometimes make larger grants but these are rare. Their largest grant to date has been £720,000.

The amounts are usually spread over one, two or three years, and sometimes for shorter periods, for example six months. For example, if you are awarded a grant of £60,000, this could be £20,000 each year over three years, or £40,000 in the first year and £20,000 in the second. They occasionally make grants for longer periods.

They sometimes cannot fund the full cost of a project and you may need to raise funds from other sources, especially if you are seeking a grant which is above the average amount theye award. They do not consider more than one outline application from any single organisation at a time, including universities. Organisations already funded by the Trust can make further grant applications to them.

Notes

The focus of their work is low-to-middle income households in the UK. They will consider research and policy projects that analyse policies in other countries that may be relevant to the UK, but they will not fund projects focussed on other countries.