Gordon Hunter worries that the Lottery's new £200m Big Local Trust will reduce even further the grants available to the grassroots.

Predictably, the Dick Turpins of Big Society (wholesale bankers, venture capitalists and investment managers) continue their assault on public money. They've made their pitch for dormant accounts to be consolidated within a wholesale bank feeding national lenders. Now they're after the Lottery's 'Big Local' stagecoach.

CCLA, which already holds nearly £4bn of church and charity assets (in low-risk cash, equity and property portfolios), urges the Lottery to abandon narrow-minded traditionalism (grantmaking to the grassroots) and, instead, take a risk (invest in financial institutions, loan instruments and bonds).

Why?                   

Do we need more loans or would grassroots groups prefer a mix of grants and facilitation?
 
My view is that the Lottery should carry on doing what it has done so well with Big Local's forerunner, the Fairshare Trust: allocating money to local community panels that define need, commission services and award grants.
 
I would make Big Local even more grassroots by devolving investment management to local communities. They have a vested interest in optimising their resources and they will benefit from team building and learning about the markets.

Gordon Hunter is a champion of localism and director of the Lincolnshire Community Foundation