The Community Enterprise Growth Plan would provide urgently needed finance to social enterprises and charities that are helping those most in need, including in some of the places most affected by long-term economic decline and most at risk from the cost-of-living crisis.
The plan would create jobs, boost growth and address regional inequalities by unlocking new investment for community enterprises – the community-based businesses, social enterprises and trading charities taking entrepreneurial approaches to tackling social problems.
Supported by a broad coalition of business groups and social enterprise and charity representative bodies, the Community Enterprise Growth Plan would use the social investment infrastructure built over the last ten years in new ways to invest in community enterprises – the community-based businesses, social enterprises and trading charities taking entrepreneurial approaches to tackling social problems.
This plan would use new Dormant Assets to deliver three proven interventions that reinforce each other:
1. Extending the availability of small, flexible affordable loans to smaller community enterprises through blended finance – this is using a mixture of grants and loans which has proved highly effective, particularly for enterprises in underserved communities.
2. Investing in non-profit community lenders in underserved areas to enable them to lend to the vital micro-businesses and community enterprises that struggle to access lending from mainstream banking.
3. Providing tailored business support including advice to start-ups and innovative incentives like match trading to encourage small enterprises to grow in more challenging areas.
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