Much like the way that open, community-driven approaches can tackle multiple deprivation, we need to view the recently published Financial Inclusion Strategy (FIS) from HM Treasury not simply as a policy document, but as a platform from which community-based action and systemic reform must flow. The Strategy offers welcome commitments, but the social sector – particularly grassroots organisations working with deeply excluded communities – must press for rigour, resourcing and co-creation if we are to move from rhetoric to real change.

At its core, the FIS defines financial inclusion as:

“everyone can access the financial products and services they need, manage their money with confidence, and plan for the future.”

The document identifies six key domains:

• Digital inclusion and access to banking
• Savings and resilience
• Insurance and financial protection
• Access to affordable credit
• Tackling problem debt
• Financial education and capability

There are also three cross-cutting themes: mental health, accessibility, and economic abuse – recognition that financial exclusion is rarely a singular cause, but layered.

In practical terms, the Strategy commits to:

• A new £30 m fund to support credit union transformation across England
• A pilot for small-sum lending via Fair4All Finance
• Making financial education compulsory in primary schools in England
• Enabling workplace savings / payroll savings schemes through regulatory clarity
• A pilot with major banks to allow people without a fixed address to open a bank account

From a community-led, “bottom-up” lens, the Strategy is important for several reasons:

1. Acknowledging the scale of exclusion

The fact that the Strategy explicitly recognises that millions of people are financially excluded or fragile – whether through lack of savings, credit problems, or access barriers – opens a door into systemic thinking. Tackling this exclusion could unlock billions in economic and social value each year.

2. Linking financial inclusion to broader social agendas

Financial exclusion doesn’t exist in isolation. By embedding themes of economic abuse, mental health and accessibility, the Strategy aligns with agendas on deprivation, homelessness, and inequality. This means those working in social impact should see it as an invitation to integrate money and finance into broader community models, rather than treat them in silo.

3. Opening up multiple entry-points for change

The Strategy doesn’t rely solely on “new products” but emphasises education, access, capability, employer engagement, regulatory clarity, and community finance infrastructure. That breadth creates opportunities for local ecosystem actors who may already be working in one or more of these domains.

4. The language of partnership and lived experience

The Strategy was shaped with input from a Financial Inclusion Committee comprised of consumer and industry representatives, and emphasises that lived experience matters. That signals fertile ground for civil society organisations to engage, influence and co-design.

While there is much to applaud, the real question will be: will this translate into deep, sustained, structural change? On that front, there are some caution lights:

1. Ambition versus structural drivers

Some sector responses argue the Strategy consolidates rather than transforms. Access and education are necessary but insufficient if underlying income insecurity, housing instability, digital exclusion, and predatory credit remain unchallenged.

2. Metrics, accountability and local implementation

Progress is to be reviewed in two years using outcomes-based metrics. But for many of the people we serve, the urgency is now. Interim milestones, transparent local dashboards, and rigorous community-level evaluation are essential.

3. Scaling community finance & local infrastructure

The £30 m credit union transformation fund is welcome, but given the scale of need, it must be matched by investment in digital infrastructure, data sharing, and referral networks that allow local actors to collaborate effectively.

4. Employer-based savings and reach

Payroll savings are valuable, but primarily benefit those in stable employment. A strategy for those in precarious work, self-employment, or benefit dependency remains underdeveloped.

5. Digital inclusion and the “last mile”

Access to banking, digital ID, and inclusive design are embedded in the Strategy, but delivery for underserved locales (rural, marginalised, non-English speakers, disabled users) will determine its real success.

If the Financial Inclusion Strategy provides the framework, then models like Angels Connect show what that framework looks like in practice.

Born out of the advice and community support sector in Liverpool, Angels Connect is building the connective tissue between financial inclusion, advice access, and community data – creating an open referral and triage network that helps people navigate complex systems of debt, welfare, and digital exclusion.

Rather than treating each problem in isolation, Angels Connect links local advice agencies, foodbanks, and community partners into a shared digital infrastructure that ensures no one falls through the cracks. Every referral, every data point, and every insight contributes to a bigger picture of local need – the kind of insight that policymakers now call for in the national strategy.

In effect, it demonstrates what “financial inclusion as social infrastructure” looks like:

• Human-centred access – meeting people where they are, not where the system expects them to be.
• Data with democracy – empowering communities to own their information and use it to shape fairer systems.
• Connected delivery – reducing duplication, strengthening partnerships, and ensuring frontline agencies have the information they need to act quickly and effectively.

If the Strategy sets the ambition nationally, platforms like Angels Connect make that ambition actionable locally. They show that inclusion isn’t achieved by new products alone, but by joining the dots between the institutions that serve people and the people they’re meant to serve.

Given the policy platform now exists, this is our moment to mobilise. Here are five key actions for the community sector to own:

1. Use the Strategy as a tool for local systems change
   Translate national commitments into local ecosystems: housing advice, employment support, community banking hubs, debt advice clinics.
2. Collaborate – co-design, not deliver in isolation
   Step up as co-designers with banks, fintechs, employers and local authorities, bringing the voices of lived experience to the table.
3. Make data democratic
   Capture and share local data on who is excluded, why, and what interventions work. Demand transparency from national and regional decision-makers.
4. Champion inclusive design and innovation
   Partner with innovators to ensure products and platforms are accessible, inclusive, and built around user need.
5. Make the business case for financial inclusion
   Frame financial inclusion not just as compassion, but as economic infrastructure that strengthens local resilience, employability, and community stability.

The UK Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy is a credible and welcome step in the right direction. It recognises that financial exclusion is a social justice issue, an economic issue and a community resilience issue. But it is not the finish line. 

For those of us in the social sector, the challenge is this: can we translate this high-level strategy into local systemic change, designing services with and for those excluded, linking finance access with housing, employment, health, and community voice? Can we hold banks, employers, regulators and government accountable for the delivery they promise? And can we ensure the “last mile” of exclusion is reached, not just the “low hanging fruit”?

In short: the strategy gives us hope, but the coalitions we could (and should) develop give it teeth. Through Angels Connect we are committed to building  models of financial inclusion as social infrastructure. Because for many people, a bank account is more than a product: it is a passport to dignity, opportunity and belonging.