Social and Sustainable Housing fund closes latest round of fundraising at almost £60 million
Social and Sustainable Housing (SASH), a fund managed by Social and Sustainable Capital (SASC), has completed its latest round of fundraising with the fund now standing at £58 million, the only fund set up to put ownership of social housing in the hands of front-line charities working to solve the homeless crisis.
The latest round, despite fundraising being undertaken throughout the COVID crisis, included increased commitments from CCLA Investment Management, Big Society Capital, Garfield Weston and Tudor Trust, as well as new investment from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Virgin Money Foundation.
SASH provides finance to allow high performing social enterprises with a strong track record in the management of social housing to purchase properties. The Fund’s target is to provide homes for 10,000 people who are homeless, or at risk of becoming so, alongside attractive, stable, long-term returns for investors generated from the receipt of government paid housing benefit.
The Covid crisis has been an incredibly busy period for the front-line charities that SASH invest in and over £38.3 million of the fund is already earmarked to help vulnerable people find high-quality supported housing.
Ben Rick, Managing Director of SASC commented,
“We see these increased stakes by our existing investors as a real endorsement of our strategy which allows investors to benefit from risk adjusted commercial returns in an uncertain market through its reliance on property and stable government welfare payments. We are also really pleased that the GMCA has chosen to invest and we hope that we will see more local authorities and other institutional asset managers, foundations and family offices invest in the future.”
City Mayor Paul Dennett, GMCA Lead for Housing and Homelessness, said:
“We are delighted to be supporting SASH and its important efforts to help people secure housing and support services.
There is an urgent need to ensure that disadvantaged families and individuals have access to safe, decent, affordable and appropriate housing, and a much broader need to address a housing crisis that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
I am therefore pleased that we have invested in this fund and hope others will join us in doing so. This is just one way in which, together, we can continue to make a real difference to the availability of high-quality supported housing in Greater Manchester, as we work together in tackling the homelessness and housing crisis and the challenges faced by families and individuals as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.”
James Bevan, Chief Investment Officer, CCLA said,
“Following our initial commitment to SASH, we were pleased to see that the capital was deployed as expected with organisations that are focused on improving their clients’ lives through the provision of stable, good quality accommodation. We were happy to increase our commitment and continue contributing towards solutions that help alleviate the shortage of suitable social housing whilst generating a fair return for our clients.”
SASH’s strategy has also been validated as an optimal way of delivering Transitional Supported Housing (TSH) to individuals and families in the recent IPPR report on the topic which argued that the social sector, including charities and voluntary organisations, should have a larger role in delivering TSH.
For further information, please contact:
SASC
Gilly Orr gilly@socialandsustainable.com +44 20 3874 3333
All media enquiries to Kepler Communications
Caroline Villiers cvilliers@keplercomms.com +44 7808 585184
About SASC
Social and Sustainable Capital (SASC) is a specialist impact investor that has committed in excess of £70 million to more than 35 organisations across the UK. In May 2020, SASC won the ‘NatWest SE100 Social Investment Award’ for the recently launched the ‘Social and Sustainable Housing’ fund (SASH). Managing Director and co-founder Ben Rick set up the firm in 2012 following a career in the City at investment banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS. The board and team have average industry experience of over 20 years in finance and not-for-profit sectors which includes co-founder Adam Knight, ex-Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, Chairman Nat Sloane, successful entrepreneur and ex-partner of Accenture, and Director of Investments Mark Bickford, ex-Lloyds Banking Group, with 20 years’ experience of lending to UK SMEs.
SASH launched in May 2019 to provide 10-year loans of between £2 million and £5 million to not-for-profit organisations across the UK with experience of managing housing for their disadvantaged clients. To date, the fund has attracted investment from Big Society Capital, CCLA Investment Management, Garfield Weston Foundation, The Greater Manchester Combined Authority, The Social Investment Business, The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Tudor Trust, City Bridge Trust, Oak Foundation, University of Edinburgh, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Power to Change, Trust for London, Adlib Foundation, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Comic Relief, Virgin Money Foundation, Longdown Capital, HNWI’s and members of the SASC Board.
*Disclaimer: Returns are not guaranteed. There can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve comparable results or be able to implement its investment strategy or achieve its investment objectives.
