Growth Fund reaches major milestone of being more than half deployed; Blended finance programme has transformed the social investment market over the last four years, making small scale unsecured finance readily available; Calls to ensure that the supply of this sort of finance continues once the Growth Fund is exhausted. Charities and social enterprises in […]

(Image from parliament.uk) Nick Hurd, the former MP and minister, has been appointed chair of Access – The Foundation for Social Investment. Hurd was MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner until the election in December 2019, and entered parliament in 2005. He held a number of government roles since 2010, including as Minister for Civil […]

Local Access, the partnership between Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, and Big Society Capital, has today announced which six places in England will take part in the new experimental £33 million programme. Each place will receive a mix of support, grant funding and repayable investment to grow their local charity and social enterprise […]

Following a successful pilot, the Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) will reopen in the New Year, and will expand to be able to support charities and social enterprises operating in the mental health and equality sectors, in addition to those working in homelessness and youth. The EDP is led by a partnership of national infrastructure bodies […]

Undertaken and written by the TI Group, Access’s learning partners, the report reflects the views of all the key actors involved in the programmes: almost 100 of the grantees, the social investor Access Points and perspectives from advisory providers and SIB, the programme manager. The findings paint an encouraging picture. The Reach Fund is supporting […]

Since its launch in January 2017, Impact Loans England has invested over £6m supporting 104 social enterprises. The investments have been across the UK including Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bradford, Sunderland and York. Rural areas such as Hexham, Derbyshire and Cumbria have also benefited from investment. 8% of those receiving investment were BME- led organisations, 45% […]