The Church Commissioners for England has announced a 15.2 per cent return on its investments during 2010, with the fund outperforming its comparator group over the past 10 and 15 years.

The fund grew to £5.3bn at December 2010, up from £4.8bn at the end of 2009.

It attributed this strong performance to a “higher weighting in shares”, particularly those in companies with overseas interests, a bias towards smaller companies within its UK shareholdings, a low weighting in UK government bonds, index-linked bonds and UK investment grade bonds, and a higher than usual investment in property.

The overall 15.2 per cent return in 2010 was achieved against a comparator performance of 12.7 per cent, while over 10 years, total returns averaged at 6.3 per cent per year, compared to the comparator’s 4.5 per cent.

Over 15 years, the Commissioners achieved an average annual return of 9.3 per cent, compared to 7.0 per cent for the comparator.

The Commissioners’ portfolio at December 2010, with 2009 figures in brackets, was broken down as follows:

• Investments, including fixed interest, UK and overseas equities - £3,485.8m (£3,167.4m);
• Investment properties, including commercial, residential, rural, strategic land and global indirect property holdings - £1,492.9m (£1,308.2m); 
• Other net assets and liabilities, including loans, short term deposits and cash - £340.8m (£339.6m).

The Commissioners' total charitable expenditure over the year was £200.5m, up from £190.8m.