Mencap's housing arm to raise £30m through social investment bond

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

A national housing charity has been awarded £350,000 from the Big Lottery Fund to develop a new social investment bond which will raise up to £30m to invest in permanent homes for people with a learning disability.

Golden Lane Housing - the housing arm of the national charity Mencap - specialises in homes for people with learning disabilities.

Since 1998 it has housed over 1,000 people and invested over £70 million in housing.

The bond, says GLH, will offer a commercially viable property investment with a direct social impact, funding housing for up to 250 people with a learning disability.

The charity hopes it will create a new model for social investment within the charity and housing sectors.

GLH will invest £30 million in either purchasing or building new properties that hundreds of people with a learning disability can rent, providing long term housing people can build their lives around and both a financial and social return for investors.

Alastair Graham, director of Golden Lane Housing, says: “People with a disability struggle to compete on the open market and can even be openly discriminated against, making it virtually impossible to find housing in some areas where social housing isn’t available.

“This innovative approach to financing housing will allow Golden Lane Housing to meet the growing need for supported living housing for people with a learning disability, transforming the lives of people who may otherwise be forced to become homeless, move away from areas they know or to live in unsuitable residential or institutional care homes.”

The announcement of seed funding of £349,000 under the ‘Next Steps: Supporting Social Investment in England’ programme of the Big Lottery Fund will allow the bond offering to be fully developed by Golden Lane Housing prior to market launch in 2013.

Funding awarded by the Big Lottery Fund will be used to develop and launch a property investment bond that will attract around £100 of private finance investment for every £1 from the Big Lottery Fund has contributed.