A £50m loan fund to help Scottish charities get onto the property ladder, or improve their current premises is officially open for applications today.
Launched by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations in partnership with the Unity Trust Bank, the loan funding will be available to SCVO members at £10m per year and will be used specifically to create business centres for 'socially-focused organisations' in Scotland.
Scottish charities will be able to apply for between £250,000 and £5m loans with loans of up to 100 per cent being considered if applicants have additional security. The normal percentage loan would be 75 per cent and typical repayment period will be ten years, with amortisation of up to 30 years. Rates will be negotiable.
The scheme, which has been endorsed by Scotland's cabinet secretary for finance and and sustainable growth John Swinney, was first announced in early December 2011 following the successful launch of SCVO's Brunswick House charity hub in Glasgow's Merchant City.
John Ferguson, director of development and programmes at SCVO, said there has already been strong interest in the new funding and said that the scheme could be of great benefit to charities:
"Increasingly we are seeing the ownership of premises become and important means by which voluntary organisations can control their costs and ensure sustainability. The scheme is aimed at helping more organisations achieve this goal, whilst benefiting from the shared back-office services and the proximity of working with like-minded organisations."
The NCVO Civil Society Almanac, a comprehensive overview of the last two years in charity finances released on 5 March, found that rental income from property was the only form of investment to hold up in the last two years, while dividends, common investment funds and government bonds all took a big hit.
Ferguson said that the loan funding would "help organisations across Scotland put assets on their balance sheet", while John Brooks, executive director of Unity Trust said the bank was "delighted to be able to help build sustainability into the sector".
