1,000 per cent increase in social impact investment boosts North East entrepreneurs

New research has revealed that investment into UK organisations committed to improving society has risen ten-fold over the last decade, with the North East among the regions to benefit most.

Big Society Capital’s annual Market Sizing exercise, which estimates the value of investments made by UK social impact investment funds since 2011, shows that the market has seen a steady growth trajectory year-on-year.

The analysis of 5,900 social impact investment commitments made in the past decade also revealed that 82 per cent were made to charities, social enterprises and social purpose organisations based outside of London, and 60 per cent to those in the UK’s most deprived communities.

With households in the most deprived areas of the UK twice as likely to struggle with household bills, the growth suggests that social impact investment is helping support those communities most in need.

Stephen Muers, chief executive at Big Society Capital, commented: “It is promising to see these figures, which demonstrate both an increasing investor appetite for creating positive change to people’s lives, and the ability of this market to stay resilient during the extremely challenging circumstances resulting from the pandemic.

The North East of England is one of the region’s to have really benefited from the increase in investment, having seen a rise in the number of social enterprises applying for finance since 2019, according to the State of Social Enterprise 2021 report by Social Enterprise UK.

The North East BIC has played a “key part” in this. Over the last five years it has been building a Social Enterprise Team which has now become the largest in the country.

Kevin Marquis, social enterprise manager at the BIC, has spent over 36 years promoting, developing and supporting social entrepreneurs across the region, and has helped hundreds of people set up Co-operatives and social enterprises in Sunderland and across the region.

Kevin added: “Social entrepreneurs not only create jobs and provide real value to their local communities, but they also play a key role in helping address global challenges such as climate change, tackling inequality and raising aspirations, making them as important today as they ever have been.

“However, while it’s pleasing to see the number of people setting up social enterprises continuing to grow and the measuring scales of investors gradually tipping to their favour, we must continue championing the sector and fighting for more funding to encourage more people to do business for good.

“With the many challenges facing society and the planet, it’s pivotal that we continue to support businesses who are doing all they can to make the world a better place, which means more conscious investors, as well as more consumers.”

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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