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The Social Investment Business responds to the Localism Bill

 

Monday 13 December 2010

Commenting on the publication of the Localism Bill by the Department for Communities and Local Government today, The Social Investment Business Chief Executive Jonathan Lewis said:

“This Bill will remove barriers and give local authorities greater opportunity to commission services from local voluntary groups, charities and social enterprises.

“Civil society organisations, working hard in their communities, are really good at both designing and delivering services that are tailored to local people’s needs and can be realised within tight budgets.

“We’ve helped community organisations to run local libraries, swimming pools and take over pubs as well as hundreds of others who have won contracts from their councils to provide services like special needs education, residential care for the elderly and training for the long term unemployed.

“We know there is great appetite in the sector to do more. But only if the right kind of support is available to civil society organisations – both investment and advice – will we really see a transformation in the way we ‘do’ public services in this country.”

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1. For further information or interviews, please contact The Social Investment Business press office:

Liz Banks - 0207 842 7726/ 07809 504072  liz.banks@socialinvestmentbusiness.org

Nicola Jones - 0207 842 7755 nicola.jones@socialinvestmentbusiness.org

2. The Social Investment Business, the fastest growing social investor in the UK, exists to help social enterprises, charities and community organisations do more of what they do best – supporting people and communities most in need. We help organisations prosper by providing innovative financial solutions, business support and long term strategic thinking.

www.thesocialinvestmentbusiness.org @TheSocialInvest

3. The Social Investment Business manages Government funds on behalf of the Office for Civil Society, the Department of Health and the Department for Communities and Local Government, with over 1,000 active investments. These range from £3,600 to help a small organisation bid successfully for a public sector contract, to £6.7million to help a large national charity establish and develop innovative new services for children and young people.


A new model for public service delivery

Find out more about our new model for local public service delivery that is helping local authorities to cut costs, drive innovation and improve services through civil society sector delivery of local public services.



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