The Schroder BSC Social Impact Trust (SBSI), which aims to address the UK’s most pressing social challenges, has today released its third annual Impact Report, detailing the social impact of investments made by SBSI on behalf of its shareholders since its 2020 launch.
The report outlines the portfolio’s impact by asset class and thematically. These key themes entail:
- Tackling poverty and inequality;
- Improving health and wellbeing;
- Providing education, training and decent work;
- Supporting a just transition to net zero
The report demonstrates that the portfolio has:
- Positively impacted 400,000 people since inception
- Provided decent, affordable homes for 35,000 disadvantaged, vulnerable and lower-income people
- Delivered £217million in benefits for the public, through savings to government and households
SBSI offers investors access to a diversified portfolio of private market, high-impact investment opportunities. It addresses financing gaps for charities and social enterprises, helping them to scale and create widespread and measurable social benefit to communities. This impact is demonstrated within the report.
It includes a variety of case studies of investments and their impact spanning nature conservation, the prevention of long-term health conditions and support for women affected by the justice system. Amongst the case studies are Thrive II and Community Energy Together.
Thrive II is a social prescribing[1] programme which will support over 3,000 people with long-term health conditions in North East Lincolnshire to improve their health and wellbeing and reduce primary and secondary care usage.
Community Energy Together, which is forecast to generate £20 million in funding for five local communities across the UK – enough to power almost 13,000 homes – was part of the biggest ever transfer of energy assets from private to community ownership in the UK. The revenue from the electricity generated provides grant funding for local projects tackling issues such as fuel poverty, climate action and other areas of disadvantage.
Hermina Popa, SBSI Portfolio Manager and Managing Director at Better Society Capital, said:
“SBSI targets deep, scalable positive impact for disadvantaged and vulnerable people in the UK. This is how we achieve strong financial performance and good, transparent impact measurement is fundamental to us. This third impact report outlines the difference SBSI’s portfolio is making across some of the biggest challenges faced in the UK.”
Susannah Nicklin, Chair of Schroder BSC Social Impact Trust, also said:
“The trust exists to provide sustainable returns and build portfolio resilience for investors, through the vital financing of UK organisations dedicated to addressing serious social problems. This report measures the impact of the trust’s activities, providing what we hope is useful transparency for investors. SBSI offers a dual benefit of profit and purpose and offers access to high impact investments across the length and breadth of the UK. The Board is keen for new investors to see the difference that the trust’s capital and support can make at the heart of our communities, and we welcome engagement with anyone interested to learn more.”
SBSI’s impact reaches across the UK and is well-targeted, with 95% of those positively impacted by the portfolio being from disadvantaged, underserved or vulnerable backgrounds.
The portfolio has a focus on essential services which deliver public value, with government-backed revenue sources providing stability through economic cycles. This has supported the company’s NAV growth of 8.6% since inception (2.5% annualised).
SBSI is portfolio managed by Better Society Capital (“BSC”), the UK’s leading social impact investor in partnership with investment manager Schroders plc.
This comes after Schroders published its inaugural Group-wide impact report, reinforcing the firm’s commitment to impact investing.
