Agenda item

In advance of a presentation by Albion Ventures, the Deputy Chairman requested that officers invite Big Society Capital to make a presentation about their new strategy to the Board sometime after late summer 2014.

The Board then received a presentation from Patrick Reeve and Robert Whitby-Smith of Albion Ventures, after which members of the Board took the opportunity to pose questions.

In response to a question from the Chairman regarding the relative merits of the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), Mr Reeve replied that it was his opinion that social investment benefited more from longer term approaches, and therefore VCTs were the more appropriate vehicle for social investment.

In response to a further question from the Chairman, Mr Reeve replied that the tax breaks on both schemes were very similar in that both offered up-front tax relief to investors – however he noted that dividend income from VCTs was tax free whereas dividend income from EIS was not.

In response to an observation from the Deputy Chairman, Mr Reeve replied that VCTs should ideally be reformed to feature, for example, a lower up-front tax break. The Deputy Chairman noted that the Financial Conduct Authority was looking to make retail investment into non-mainstream investments such as EIS more difficult.

RESOLVED –

·         In response to a suggestion from the Deputy Chairman, officers agreed to invite Big Society Capital to make a presentation about their new strategy to the Board sometime after late summer 2014.