The Big Lottery Fund is to announce a new five year funding programme which will see A 250m handed to charities and community groups in Scotland today. Having been granted a reprieve in George Osborne’s spending review – which had been predicted to see a A 30m cut to its annual budget – the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland is to make grants of A 10000 to A 1 million available to help finance projects promising to improve lives and communities.