Social finance is providing loans to local groups and communities who are excluded from credit by the dramatic fall in bank lending, a new report has said.
The report, entitled ‘From the Ground Up: How Social Finance can help Communities Regenerate and Create Jobs,’ was published by Clann Credo, the Social Investment Fund, last Friday.
Clann Credo, Ireland’s largest provider of social finance, approved over €10m in new lending to community based enterprises last year.
In Kilkenny, Clann Credo has supported groups like the Stoneyford Development Association in plans for expansion of over-stretched community hall dating from 1986.
The refurbished centre will now have a new meeting room, office, new kitchen, wheelchair-accessible toilets, storage space for sports equipment and a new reception area. Loan approval was provided in 2010 when businesses generally were being affected by the fall-off in bank lending.
The report recommends a number of initiatives to government to assist the development of social enterprise and the social economy, including public-social partnerships in the areas of social care, job creation, transport provision, criminal justice and waste management.
It also recommends the introduction of social impact bonds, which would involve a partnership between the state, private philanthropic investors and specialist voluntary service providers, as well as the establishment of a Social Economy Development Unit within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation.
At the launch of the report, Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, said that in a situation where resources are scarce, social enterprise and the social economy can play a key role in creating sustainable and socially useful jobs.
“Ireland lags significantly behind the rest of Europe in the number of social enterprise related jobs we provide and this report offers very useful suggestions to remedy this situation and help to implement the Programme for Government commitments in this area,” he said.
