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InclusiNews · Macro Brief 01

The £138 billion
most founders never see.

A 90-second tour of where UK funding actually starts — and why almost none of it reaches you.

The ceiling

£138bn

Liquid wealth — cash and shares — held by the UK's top 1%. Source: ONS Wealth & Assets Survey.

The gap, every year

£4.2bn

What UK small charities (income under £1M) are short of every single year. Pro Bono Economics + NPC.

The math

£138bn
held, liquid, top 1%
÷ £4.2bn =
33×
the gap, fillable, every year

The money exists. The scarcity is structural — not absolute.

The chain it has to travel

From £138bn to £16,500 (a real grant) — there are 9 gates.

T1Ceiling — top 1%£138bn
T2State — HMT, DLUHC, DCMS, UKSPFbudgets
T3Arms-length — UKRI, NLHF, Innovate, NESTA~£10bn/yr
T4Foundations — Esmée, Paul Hamlyn, Tudor, Wellcome~£200m/yr
T5Corporate CSR + Banksscattered
T6Local — councils, BIDs, ICBsplace-based
T7Aggregators — NCVO, NPC, 360Givingintelligence
T8Friction-reducers — InclusiFund, fiscal sponsorsbridge
T9You — the SME / CIC reach£16,500

The pattern

Friction is the moat.

Each gate adds paperwork that filters small CICs out by exhaustion, not by merit. Map the chain. Pick a tier. You've already done what 90% of founders never do.

Today's signal

The maze is consolidating.

Spring Statement headroom-tightening. Lankelly Chase wind-down. Tudor Trust criteria refresh. Fewer-bigger gates. Founders building 2–3 specific gatekeeper relationships in 2026–27 will out-perform founders applying to 30 cold pots.

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