04.07.2013
The UK social investment market has grown according to a new report that tracked intermedaries to 2012.
The Growing the Social Investment Market: The Landscape and Economic Impact report finds that while the market is worth £202m, the demand for social finance is much greater.
The report identified 29 Social Investment and Finance Intermediaries (SIFIs) as actively investing, but they reported only meeting around half of expressed demand by social ventures, illustrating a significant funding gap in access. Estimates for demand for social finance have been put at £2bn to as much as £6bn.
The report calls for improved access to finance, particularly to unsecured lending to meet that demand.
The report was commissioned by City of London, Big Lottery Fund, Big Society Capital and government and details the progress and milestones of the developing social investment market in the UK. It found that over the lifetime of their finance period, 765 social investments resulted in the creation or safeguarding of 340 UK social ventures and 6,870 UK full time equivelant jobs.
The report also identified that there was a skew towards social finance coverage in the English regions as well as the devolved administrations, leading to an uneven geographical spread in access.
Measured purely for economic impact (and not social impact), a social investment of just over £1m achieves 100 net national FTE jobs. A three year social investment of £11m would generate almost £1.9m net additional Gross Value Added in the national economy over the period.
In comparison, CDFA research revealed that our members lent £145m to 347 social ventures in 2012.
Find out more about the report
Read more about how CDFIs are supporting social ventures