Bradford will receive a share of a new £33 million investment programme launched today aimed at tackling inequality through boosting the social economy.
Local Access, a partnership between Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, and Big Society Capital, will provide money for six places in total: Bradford; Bristol; Gainsborough; Great Manchester (Bolton, Oldham, Stockport and Wigan); Hartlepool, Redcar & Cleveland; and Southwark in London.
A number of organisations from across the district joined together to form the successful Bradford
Social Innovation Partnership and bid for the investment — led by 30 Chapel Street, Airedale Enterprise Services, Bradford City Council, Inspired Neighbourhoods Group, Key Fund, Locality, On Track Social, Participate, PwC. The money will support charities and social enterprises in Bradford to grow the local social economy to tackle local issues and innovate new social initiatives.
“Bradford is a young, diverse and innovative district. We will use this fund to support and encourage growth in our local social enterprise sector. This will include further developing and maturing our infrastructure support and improve the offer of financial support for this sector.”
Kersten England – Chief Executive, Bradford Council
“Leading development of the city’s bid was a wonderful opportunity to bring the sector together. Building on the results of our work elsewhere, we were determined to craft an inclusive, diverse and collaboratively designed process that brought everyone’s views together into a collective effort. The city’s success is a breakthrough for the social innovation economy in Bradford and positions the city to be the natural home for such work.”
Kamran Rashid – Chief Executive, 30 Chapel Street
“This is an amazing investment opportunity for Bradford’s Social economy kickstarting a journey towards establishing our city as a social innovation hub. Our experience of empowering local communities to achieve their fullest potential underlines our commitment to making this the success that Bradford deserves.”
Nasim Qureshi – Chief Executive, Inspired Neighbourhoods
Seb Elsworth, Chief Executive of Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, said: “We all know charities and social enterprises do good work in our communities, but the sector’s power as an economic force, one which can help reshape local economies and in so doing tackle the most entrenched inequality, is often overlooked. We are delighted to be working with Bradford to help them to realise this potential and grow their local social economy through the tools of enterprise support and access to investment through blended finance.”
Cliff Prior, Chief Executive of Big Society Capital, said: “Where you were born should not affect your opportunity to live a happy and fulfilling life. But there are many areas in the UK that have experienced high levels of deprivation for many years, and even in relatively prosperous areas there can be pockets that reveal huge levels of inequality. We believe the Local Access programme offers an innovative approach to levelling up the disparity between places through developing the social economy. Crucially it is a pilot programme, and so we look forward to gathering the learning emerging from each of the places as the programme progresses.”
The partnership in Bradford will help Bradford develop a dynamic, compassionate and inclusive ecosystem of social enterprise – creating a destination for social innovation. They will now begin a codesign process with Access and Big Society Capital to refine their plans with the aim to launch in the second half of this year.
