Big Society Capital announces £15m investment for community-led housing projects
Melanie May | 14 December 2016 | News
Big Society Capital is to invest £15m into community-led housing project through its newly launched Community-led Housing Facility.
Big Society Capital will co-invest the funds with three junior social investors’ investments into large-scale, mainly urban community-led housing projects designed to deliver affordable housing that meets local need. The co-investment facility aims to increase the development capital that is available in the market in order to help more projects reach completion, and will also aim to attract further investment.
FSE Group, Northstar Ventures and Social and Sustainable Capital (SASC) will be the first group of social investors to access the Facility in order to invest in projects that need more than £1m of investment. It will also be supported by other co-investors across social banks, local authorities, foundations and other grant-makers, with the potential to increase the amount available to community-led housing projects to £75 million, according to Big Society Capital.
The Facility’s launch follows a number of investments that Big Society Capital has made in an attempt to help address the growing need for affordable housing. Earlier this year, it invested £15m into Funding Affordable Homes with Salamanca Group, as well as £15m into the National Homelessness Property Fund in partnership with homelessness charity St Mungo’s Broadway and social investor Resonance.
Catherine Harrington, director of the National Community Land Trust Network said:
“There are now 225 Community Land Trusts (CLTs), having grown six-fold in six years, 700 homes have been built and there are now nearly 3000 homes in the pipeline. However, as a relatively new model of housing delivery, CLTs continue to face significant challenges that prevent the movement from making a more significant contribution to housing supply including access to sufficient capital from social investors.
“This facility is an important step in ensuring that the community-led housing sector has access to sufficient development finance on appropriate terms. We look forward to Big Society Capital and other investors supporting the sector to achieve scale.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.