Bubb calls for Futurebuilders fund to re-open 1

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 14 Sep 2012

Sir Stephen Bubb, chair of Social Investment Business, has called on the government to use the £28m in loan repayments accrued by the now closed Futurebuilders fund, for more loans to the social sector.

The Futurebuilders fund, which was managed by the Social Investment Business on behalf of government, is currently sitting on £28m in loan repayments while the Cabinet Office decides what to do with the funds.

It was closed by government two years ago having providing loans and grants to charities worth £155m over the last five years.

Sir Stephen told civilsociety.co.uk that government should free up the £28m to create more loans for the charity sector:

“Futurebuilders was part of the original idea and concept behind social finance. You make loans to an organisation and as it grows and repays the money you can re-loan it. It’s a virtuous circle, whereas grants just go.

“By blocking Futurebuilders using this money to make more loans this has been stopped.”

At the time of closing the fund minister for civil society, Nick Hurd, said future revenue from the Futurebuilders programme would be used to provide grants to stimulate the creation and development of neighbourhood groups.

This week, a Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: “Any returns from the Futurebuilders fund will be reinvested into building a bigger, stronger society. We will update further on our plans in due course.”

Sir Stephen has said government needs to speed up the process:

“Government is talking about its growth strategy and how it can encourage small enterprises, while we are sitting on £28m which we can use for loans.”

Civilsociety.co.uk asked various sector leaders where they thought the £28m would be best used. See the slideshow below for their suggestions (you can find the pause button by hovering over the top of the slideshow):

Directory: The Social Investment Business
Who's Who: Peter Lewis | Jay Kennedy | Joe Irvin | Hilary Greengrass | Caron Bradshaw

Place a comment

Joy Clarke
Honorary Treasurer
CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
15 Sep 2012

May I ask if you are considering awarding Grants to organisations? Although we are a Church, our building is also used for community use, we are trying to increase our neighbourhood Groups, but there needs to be very important work done to the building. Primarily we are in need of £3,225 for the first lot of work to be done, if this is something you can help us with please contact me and I can give you more details.

[Reply]

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.