Tackling Financial Exclusion

There has been mounting concern recently about people who have limited access to financial services and are considered to be financially excluded. This report identifies and examines a range of potential solutions to meet the needs of people living on the margins of financial services. Moreover, it provides practical guidance for other local communities wanting to evolve plans for tackling financial exclusion. Unlike much of the previous research on financial exclusion, this report approaches the problem from the standpoint of people who are affected by financial exclusion themselves, and live in a community where many of their friends and neighbours are also excluded. In particular, the report: examines the difficulties and unmet needs for financial services expressed by local people in Barton Hill, Bristol - one of the 17 Pathfinder areas in the government's New Deal for Communities initiative; documents a range of possible solutions to the needs of those suffering financial exclusion presents local people's assessments of the best ways to tackle the problems of financial exclusion in their own community.
This report should be of interest to all those involved in community regeneration or access to financial services, including financial service providers, local authorities, voluntary sector organisations, academics and policy makers at both local and national levels.