.jpg){kind=link}
Nearly £20 million in new funding aims to stabilise legal support charities across England and Wales
The government has announced a grant of nearly twenty million pounds over two and a half years to support legal advice and legal support charities, as ministers seek to place the sector on a more sustainable footing.
The funding was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy and will be administered by the Access to Justice Foundation. The new grant programme will run from October 2026 until March 2029, with organisations across the legal advice sector invited to apply.
Until the new funding comes into effect, the Ministry of Justice will continue to support two existing grant schemes run by the foundation. The Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support programme and the Online Support and Advice programme have both been extended for a further six months, ensuring continued provision of services until September 2026.
The Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support scheme originally launched in July 2023 and was due to end on 31 March this year. During that period, fifty-nine organisations across England and Wales shared ten million pounds in funding. However, demand far outstripped supply, with two hundred and twenty one organisations applying for a combined total of thirty-five million pounds. The Ministry of Justice later committed a further six million pounds to keep both schemes running.
David Lammy said the funding was essential to ensure that people facing serious legal problems could access timely support. He said that those dealing with issues such as debt, eviction and family breakdown must be able to obtain legal help when they need it most. The new funding, he added, would help put the sector on a sustainable footing as part of the government’s wider Plan for Change.
Clare Carter, chief executive of the Access to Justice Foundation, said the organisation would run an open funding round next spring or summer. While details of the programme have not yet been finalised, she said it would focus on ensuring early access to legal help so that problems relating to housing, benefits and debt do not escalate.
The Ministry of Justice said it was working closely with partners across the sector on a longer-term programme to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the legal support system.