The UK Democracy Fund

The Electoral Commission recently reported that “as many as 8 million people across the UK are still not correctly registered to vote”. They are disproportionally from the most marginalised and underrepresented groups in our communities; those people least likely to have their voices heard - young people, renters and those in insecure housing, racialised and minoritised communities and those on low incomes.

In 2019, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust established the strictly independent and non-partisan UK Democracy Fund to address this issue. Through work supported by grants from the Fund, we focus on growing the participation of the most marginalised and underrepresented groups, building voice, agency and power through participation in elections and have built up a wealth of evidence and research on what works to engage underrepresented groups in our politics.

The Fund is helping build a healthy democracy – one in which everyone can participate and where political power is shared fairly. It addresses the challenge of funding democratic participation and tackling political inequality, with three broad goals:

• Enabling everyone to vote - building support for reforms to ensure a simple, seamless and accessible voting system fit for the 21st Century
• Extending the right to vote - advocating in support of expanding the franchise for 16- and 17-year-olds and settled UK residents from overseas
• Increasing participation of everyone in our elections - making an effort to raise the turnout of low-propensity voters to improve fairness in our democracy.