The UK’s first Local Impact Fund has been launched in Liverpool, and is expected to deliver more than £100m to charities and social enterprises.
The £2m fund will provide business support and unsecured loans of up to £250,000 to charities and social enterprises across England.
The fund has been developed by the Social Investment Business, and ten other cities and regions are expected to set up their own Local Impact Funds going forward.
Sir Stephen Bubb, chair of the Social Investment Business, said: ‘There is a ground-breaking opportunity to use Local Impact Funds to attract over £100m of new social investment in the next couple of years, enabling charities and social enterprises to create new jobs and improve services in their communities.
‘We believe that about 15 to 20 Local Enterprise Partnerships will want to launch a Local Impact Fund by 2016, and we are already recruiting our next wave of partners. We expect these funds to be between £5m and £10m initially, and they will be a critical first step in bringing social investment to communities anywhere in the UK.’
Val Jones, CEO of Social Enterprise North West said: ‘Three in four social enterprises tell us that lack of finance is preventing them scaling up the good work they do. Local Impact Funds will give them the scale of funding they need to realise their ambitions, creating jobs, growth and improved services tailored to the needs of their communities.’
