Our impact

This section aims to illustrate and highlight the breadth of enterprises and people our investments support through the fund managers and social banks we invest in, and the social impact that these enterprises create across the UK. The examples in this report are intended to provide insight into the broad range of outcome areas, business models, geographies and end-users that our investments are targeting.

3,500+

organisations have received social investment from Big Society Capital since 2012
75%

of enterprises taking on investment are targeting vulnerable and/or underserved groups of people
60%

of enterprises that have received investment are located within the most deprived areas of the UK

We collect the data points below on our investments, to track and communicate our impact on the enterprises taking on social investment and the people benefiting. While we don't collect “number of people reached” consistently across our entire portfolio, we know from fund managers’ impact reports that our investments help create important outcome changes for large numbers of people:

Infographic showing how Better Society Capital's impact scales

Read more about the data points we collect across our portfolio, regarding the types of enterprise and people benefiting from our investments and market-building efforts.

About the data in this report

Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

We track our investments against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our outcome areas as defined in the Outcomes matrix to help us understand our market-building work and how that contributes to addressing social issues in the UK. Rather than allocating capital or setting targets based on preferences across SDGs and outcome areas, we work collaboratively with impact-driven fund managers to invest our capital in organisations that are addressing the most pressing social issues to improve the lives of people in the UK.

We code our investments based on their alignment to the SDGs on a primary, secondary, and tertiary basis. This provides insight into the top three SDGs each investment is supporting; however, many investments will be targeting more than three SDGs and therefore will not always capture the full range. The visualisation below focuses on the primary SDG alignment. The primary SDGs that feature most dominantly by commitment value across our portfolio are:

33%

Sustainable cities and communities

Investment actively fostering sustainable urban development
27%

Good health and wellbeing

Investment contributing to enhancing health and wellbeing
20%

Affordable and clean energy

Investment supporting initiatives to drive energy affordability and transition

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Case study

Open door

Bridges Outcomes Partnerships created Refugee Better Outcomes Partnership (RBOP) to support refugees with integration and employment via two outcomes partnerships.

Open door is a delivery partner for a social outcomes contract operating in the North-East of England, supporting newly granted refugees with access to stable housing and employment.

Challenge

Refugees face multiple barriers to self-sufficiency in the UK, including lack of access to stable housing, mental health challenges and limited social connections.

Approach

Bridges Outcomes Partnerships created Refugee Better Outcomes Partnership (RBOP) to support refugees with integration and employment via two outcomes partnerships, one in Plymouth and one across the North-East (RISE). On receiving a positive decision from the Home Office on their refugee status, an asylum seeker has 28 days to find alternative accommodation. Starting from the point of a positive decision RBOP programmes provide housing, employment and integration support to a refugee, supporting their transition out of asylum accommodation and into the community.

1,164

people have started the programme – exceeding the initial target of 780
607

people have secured accommodation
£750,000

of additional value to government

Impact

RBOP launched in late 2021, and to date 1,164 refugees have started the programme, above the original target of 780. More than 1,000 have now completed integration plans. 607 refugees have secured accommodation and 302 have already entered into employment, with many more working towards these outcomes. The project is expected to deliver more outcomes than the original outcomes cap, delivering an estimated £750,000 of additional value to government.

Group of ten people in smart-casual clothing posing for the camera in front of a door

Outcome areas

What outcome areas are social investment targeting?

Our investments are deployed across a range of social issues, or outcome areas. We tag our portfolio by outcome areas to understand the social issues and outcomes our investments are aiming to support and achieve. A large proportion of the portfolio will be delivering across multiple outcome areas. For this report and insight purposes, we have focused only on the primary outcome area as per the Outcomes Matrix.

10

outcome areas
35%

of investment (£) targeted to housing and local facilities
21%

of investments by number targeted to employment, education and training

Housing and local facilities has been the top primary outcome area over time, reflecting the ability to find alignment between the scale of need, amount of capital required and investor goals around social property through social investment. These investments cover a wide range of business models within social property, including supported housing addressing both short- and long- term need, affordable housing, community housing and residential services providing nursing home and children’s homes care.

By number of investments, 21% are delivering social impact within the education and work sector. These investments span social lending, impact venture and social outcomes contracts, and cover a wide range of business models including social enterprise recruitment agencies, EdTech initiatives, youth services and early years support.

Case study

P3 charity

Challenge

The UK is facing a housing crisis, with Crisis estimating a need for £19 billion from 2018-2041 to provide sustainable high-quality housing for those at risk of homelessness. Charities face hurdles in buying property for people experiencing homelessness, due to financial barriers such as deposit requirements.

Approach

P3 Charity purchases housing and leases it to people who are socially excluded or at risk of homelessness. P3 also offers housing-related support services in areas including mental health, substance misuse and money worries, which may affect their ability to cope. It helps people build on their skills and resilience so they can develop their independence and maintain their accommodation.

Using social investment from managers including Social and Sustainable Capital, it has provided 300 affordable homes in Wolverhampton, Lincolnshire and beyond.

Impact

P3 staff and volunteers have worked alongside 28,000 people, and have purchased homes for more than 2,000 people.

300

homes provided thanks to social investment
2,000

people housed by P3 in 2021-22
86%

of tenants are happy with their standard of accommodation

Our approach is empowering and aims to put tenants in the driving seat. Social investment has enabled us to provide people with the stable accommodation they need to access education and employment opportunities and ultimately improve their life chances.

Group of people sitting around a table painting

User groups

Who is benefiting from social investment?

We tag our portfolio with user groups to understand the range of end-users that social investment is supporting, and to enable analysis of the wider context of the users an organisation is working with.

75%

of enterprises supporting underserved and/or vulnerable groups
13

identified underserved and/or vulnerable groups
29%

People living in poverty and/or financial exclusion is the top user group identified over time

Graph showing which user groups access different percentages of Better Society Capital's portfolio by capital invested and number of investments

22% of enterprises that have received investment to date have targeted the “general population”. This category is selected when the primary user group is not a specific vulnerable and/or underserved group, however it will not capture individual underserved and/or vulnerable people or geographical areas that are underserved. The primary user groups of investment to date include people living in poverty and/or financial exclusion, people experiencing homelessness and older people. These user groups are supported across a wide range of business models, including affordable and accessible personal lending, short- and long-term transitional housing, and residential nursing and domiciliary care.

Case study

Plend

Plend is an ethical lender, providing affordable and fair credit to those locked out of affordable finance and everyone in need of credit. They aim to give everyone a chance to access a loan they can afford.

Challenge

Access to affordable credit is vital for an individual’s financial stability and mental wellbeing. However, 1 in 3 people are unable to access affordable lending solutions and over 20 million people in the UK are estimated to be excluded from mainstream credit. Those on the lowest incomes are hit the hardest; seen as higher risk to traditional lenders, many are forced to turn to high-cost credit to meet their basic needs, creating a cycle of debt and financial exclusion.

Approach

Plend is an ethical lender, providing affordable and fair credit to those locked out of affordable finance and everyone in need of credit.

Using social investment from Ascension’s Fair by Design fund, Plend uses their own open banking technology to analyse a wide range of data provided by the customers themselves to create a PLEND Score®. This personalised approach provides a much more accurate measure of an individual’s ability to borrow rather than traditional credit scoring that is over-indexed to an individual’s financial history and assumptions on where you live and how you spend your money.

Impact

Plend’s inclusive approach to lending helps tackle financial exclusion and offer fairer, more socially responsible borrowing to a range of underserved audiences in the UK.

£1.4m

interest saved (interest and fees saved in debt consolidation loans for Plend customers)
81.3%

of Plend customers defined as financially excluded
£1,974

saved per Plend customer on debt consolidation loans

Group of 15 people posing around a sofa in an office space, smiling at the camera

Social investment has played a massive role in our journey, helping to ensure that impact is at the core of our business as we continue to develop outcomes that actually work for people as opposed to the status quo of overcharging or declining someone due to a lazy approach to data.

Business models

What business models are social investment supporting?

Our business model groups provide insight into how capital is allocated to drive financial returns and impact. The categories provide insight into the flow of investment into different business models. Our aim is to build out our business model insights to help influence investors and fund managers to design and deliver propositions that direct greater capital at scale to high-impact business models and develop a shared understanding of the relationship between financial and impact performance.

The most invested business model our investment has targeted is supported housing – short-term and transitional need. This is investment used to support the integrated provision of housing and support for those with short-term and transitional needs, such as people who are experiencing homelessness, people who are fleeing domestic violence, people with mental health conditions, those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, and ex-offenders. This is based on the amount committed (£) and reflects the significant investments made within the social and affordable housing market system.

In 2024 we will be continuing to build out our business model analysis to further refine the models that we have identified and map our portfolio to share relevant insights with investors and fund managers. The aim of our business model analysis is to achieve an improved understanding of how business models drive impact and value. It will allow investors, fund managers and others to develop the appropriate investments products to effectively support social enterprises, charities and social purpose organisations, while delivering on the risk, return and impact preferences of different investor groups.

The case study below is an example of community-owned renewables, which describes investment used for community-owned utilities, including energy generation assets, that can provide affordable energy and/or other services (eg broadband) to the community, and a long-term income stream to be spent on community benefit initiatives

Case study

Ambition Community Energy

Ambition Community Energy is a grass roots group charged with the regeneration of the residential area of Lawrence Weston, for the benefit of its 7,200 residents with 3,200 homes.

Challenge

Lawrence Weston sits within the highest 10% of deprivation levels in England, according to the Local Authorities indices of deprivation.

Amidst rising energy bills, community-based projects such as ours are set to play an important role in alleviating fuel poverty, while also helping to create local, green jobs as part of a just transition.

Solution

Ambition Community Energy is a grass roots group charged with the regeneration of the residential area of Lawrence Weston, for the benefit of its 7,200 residents with 3,200 homes.

Ambition Community Energy run a wind turbine which will sell energy to the grid, bringing in valuable surpluses for community use. The project was developed thanks to social investment from City Funds, Power to Change and others.

Impact

The project will provide a new revenue stream for the local community in Lawrence Weston, as all profits from electricity sales will be reinvested back into the area, acting as a driver for regeneration.

Large group of people, some wearing hard hats, cheering in front of a banner reading

Without the City Funds investment the project would not have gone ahead. We would like to thank the tireless efforts of the staff involved.

Geographical reach

Where does the investment go?

We have invested in over 3,500 enterprises to date, and the map below shows a selection that have received investment through the fund managers we work with and have shared their postcode data with us.

We map these investments by local authority, and use the index of multiple deprivation (IMD) to assess the relative deprivation of places where the organisations that have taken on social investment are based. This data can be reviewed by the number of investments or by the total value of those investments, which both show a similar pattern of distribution across IMD Quintile 1-5.

Although we don’t specifically set targets on the geographical reach of our investments apart from in our lending portfolio we use the IMD as one measure to help us determine whether social investment is reaching those most at need, and ensure our investment is wide-reaching across all regions of the UK. Looking ahead, we want to overlay alternative geographical data sets such as Census household deprivation indicators, to complement our IMD analysis and further understand where more localised deprivation hotspots may be overlooked.

3,500+

enterprises that have received our capital
70% +

committed outside of London
60%

3% increase from 2020

of investments reaching the most deprived areas of the UK

Chart showing how BSC's portfolio is divided across Indices of Multiple Deprivation Quintiles

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Case study

Open kitchen

Open Kitchen uses a mix of edible food stopped from going to waste, and sustainably produced local ingredients. The social enterprise turns this mix into bespoke catering menus for meetings and events- plus nutritious meals to be sold from its vibrant café in the Centre of Manchester.

Challenge

Food waste is the third biggest producer of carbon emissions on the planet after the USA and China. It is estimated that around 15 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK each year. Soaring energy costs and supply chain disruption have resulted in food costs rising 25% in the past two years alone, meaning many people are unable to afford essential groceries.

Approach

Open Kitchen has received social investment at several stages of its journey, including from the Growth Fund managed by Access- the Foundation for social investment and Flexible Finance Fund managed by Key Fund, to allow it to grow and expand its offering for customers and people experiencing food poverty.

Impact

For every tonne of food waste that Open Kitchen stops from going to waste, it stops 4.2 tonnes of CO2e from being emitted, in turn helping to lower Greater Manchester’s carbon footprint.

All Open Kitchen profits (and some grant funded projects) go towards its community focused work. It provides meals, grocery parcels and other basic supplies.

Green wall showing text which outlines Open Kitchen's work

There’s not a mainstream bank in this country that would have supported us as an independent food and drink venture during the tricky economic climate of 2021 – so our cafe simply wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Key Fund and its investors.

In this section:

3,500+

75%

60%

33%

27%

20%

Challenge

Approach

1,164

607

£750,000

Impact

Outcome areas

What outcome areas are social investment targeting?

10

35%

21%

Challenge

Approach

Impact

300

2,000

86%

Our approach is empowering and aims to put tenants in the driving seat. Social investment has enabled us to provide people with the stable accommodation they need to access education and employment opportunities and ultimately improve their life chances.

User groups

Who is benefiting from social investment?

75%

13

29%

Challenge

Approach

Impact

£1.4m

81.3%

£1,974

Social investment has played a massive role in our journey, helping to ensure that impact is at the core of our business as we continue to develop outcomes that actually work for people as opposed to the status quo of overcharging or declining someone due to a lazy approach to data.

Business models

What business models are social investment supporting?

Challenge

Solution

Impact

Without the City Funds investment the project would not have gone ahead. We would like to thank the tireless efforts of the staff involved.

Geographical reach

Where does the investment go?

3,500+

70% +

60%

Challenge

Approach

Impact

There’s not a mainstream bank in this country that would have supported us as an independent food and drink venture during the tricky economic climate of 2021 – so our cafe simply wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Key Fund and its investors.

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