Agenda item

A report of the Director of Economic Development (copy attached).

The Social Investment Advisor introduced a report outlining major activities designed to develop both the City of London’s social investment strategy and the social investment fund, noting in particular the recent appointment of the Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee to the UK Advisory Board to the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce, and the publication of a jointly-commissioned (by the City of London, Big Society Capital, Big Lottery Fund and HM Government) report on growing the social investment market.

A Member expressed concern whether, once the social investment market was more established and more investors joined it, thus promoting competition, this would impact negatively on the Corporation’s efforts to identify promising social investment opportunities. In response the Social Investment Advisor replied that the market was still in its very early stages and competitiveness not an issue at present, and indeed such a situation, if and when it emerged, would be a promising indicator of the market’s development.

In response to a request from a Member over how the impact of a social investment could be assessed and measured, officers noted that organisations such as Big Society Capital were dedicating significant time to this issue. Key indicators included the estimated cost savings that a social investment offered: i.e. the amount of public money saved in terms of social services on a local issue such as homelessness, versus the social investment in a project providing stable accommodation. It was noted that it was harder to assess impact if the focus of the social investment was on prevention, rather than on immediate cost-saving, and if an investment was spread over a wide geographic area rather than in one location.

In response to wider discussion over how the impact of a proposed investment could be gauged by the Board, the Chairman suggested that officers review methods of presenting information in their reports. It was generally agreed by Members and officers that the adoption of a ‘traffic light’ system in monitoring and reporting would be useful, with the Chief Grants Officer noting such a review by officers would be particularly useful once the forthcoming Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) conference had taken place. Lastly, the Board noted that each investment that came before the Board would be examined on its merits and that a degree of intuition would be a factor.

RESOLVED, that:

·         Officers conduct a wider review on the reporting and monitoring format of both proposed and existing investments including the adoption of a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) system, and report back to the Board at the next meeting with their recommendations.