In June, I visited the Old Eight Bells in my constituency of Mansfield. For years it stood empty, a town-centre landmark that had been a pub and then a nightclub, slowly falling into disrepair. Today it is home to adults with learning disabilities and autism, each with their own apartment and the wrap-around support they need.
I was shown round by tenants and their families. It was hard not to be moved by what this place now means to the people who live there. I spoke to Aynsley, whose twin sister Emma has Down syndrome and has reached a real milestone in finally living more independently, with the right care in place. Their story captures what that change has meant for the family. It gives people the chance to live the life they choose, something Andy Burnham echoed in his first commitment as Prime Minister, to end rough sleeping, backed by £340 million to get people into safe homes.
What also struck me was the effect in the wider community. Empty and without purpose, the building gave nothing back to the town. Now residents, families and staff are part of daily life in the town, using the local shops and services. The community rooms have become a venue in their own right, hosting a choir, a drama group, podcasting sessions and more whilst pulling people in from across Mansfield. Bringing the building back to life has, in turn, breathed new life into the area.
Developments like these show we don’t need to start from scratch to deliver impact in our towns and cities, and there is urgent demand. According to Shelter, more than 1.3 million households are on waiting lists for social housing and record numbers of people are in temporary accommodation. NHS data reveals there are around 2,000 autistic people and people with a learning disability stuck in hospitals due to a lack of suitable accommodation. Meanwhile, the Empty Homes Network reports that more than one million homes in England are thought to be empty, 309,000 of them long-term. The buildings are often already there, standing empty in our town centres, waiting to be brought back into use.
The Government is right to want to build more homes, and I want to see social homes built at the scale the country needs. But building takes years, and a family stuck in B&Bs, or someone sleeping rough tonight, does not have the luxury of time. The empty homes going to waste are one of the quickest routes we have to a safe, settled home. Not instead of building, but alongside it. Earlier this year, a coalition of housing and impact investment leaders, including Shelter, Big Issue, the Empty Homes Network, Resonance and Better Society Capital, called for a national strategy to bring empty homes back into use.
But finding the buildings is only part of the challenge. Finding the money to bring them back into use is often harder. Social impact investment — capital invested to achieve social good alongside a financial return — still goes largely unused by government. Old Eight Bells shows what it looks like in practice: a social impact investor, Resonance, backed the building not as a grant but as an investment, working with the charity United Response to run it, on the understanding that doing genuine good within a community and making a sound investment can both be achieved.
The Labour Government is putting place at the centre of national policy, and it is right to give communities more say over their future. But many of the organisations best placed to drive local change, charities, social enterprises, community businesses and community-led groups, cannot get the capital they need to act on this. This is where organisations such as Better Society Capital have a role to play. Set up over a decade ago with dormant bank account money and cross-party backing, it exists to grow the UK’s social impact investment market, which has since grown more than tenfold to over £11 billion. It puts patient capital into the funds and organisations doing the work on the ground, helping public money go further.
A great example of this in practice is in the Prime Minister’s own home of Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund were among the first investors in Resonance’s National Homelessness Property Fund 2, providing homes for people at risk of homelessness. Since 2013, Resonance has used this model across the country to house almost 4,000 adults and children in nearly 1,400 properties, drawing in around £400 million of investment.
None of this replaces the need to build, or to fund public services properly. But it is a powerful way of turning ambition into action. And like the million empty buildings across the country, we are barely touching its potential.
The Old Eight Bells shows what can be achieved when the right investment is available. A property that stood empty for years now offers homes, independence and community. Similar approaches could help tackle a much wider range of challenges. Social impact investment is a way of getting things done — bringing in private investment alongside public money, sharing the risk, and backing the people who know their own communities best to solve the problems in front of them. As this Government works to end rough sleeping, revive our towns and build a more preventative state, social impact investment should be a standard part of the toolkit.
Steve Yemm is the Labour MP for Mansfield.
