Equity Impact Project

We are delighted to share with members two reports AREF has co-sponsored, coming out of the Equity Impact Project, spearheaded by The Good Economy and Big Society Capital. The reports can be found below:

• Towards an Approach to Impact Reporting for Investments in Social and Affordable Housing - providing a consistent approach for housing investment funds to assess and report on how they are making a positive difference for people and the planet.
• Affordable Housing Equity Investment Models: Optimising Risk, Return and Impact - Insight Brief - exploring affordable housing equity investment models from a risk, return and impact perspective.

We believe that private capital can play a significant positive role in meeting the UK’s housing challenges, but that it needs to be stewarded responsibly.

These reports, from Big Society Capital and The Good Economy, aim to ensure private capital is a positive force in tackling the need for more social and affordable housing. Together with investment fund managers and other sector stakeholders, the objective of the reports is to establish norms of practice that can help shape an inclusive housing market.

Establishing new norms takes time. These two reports aim to lay the foundations for an affordable housing investment landscape that acts responsibly and in line with sector interests. 

Thank you to our committe members, Ann Xu of the ESG & Impact Investing Committee, and Martin Zdravkov of the Residential Working Group, who actively participated in the Project Working Group, reporting back to and supported by their respective committee/wg.

Next Steps: 

Extended participation to a wider group of interested equity funds in an attempt to get a broad buy-in for the framework. Over the coming year, they expect to run the following activities to support all adopters:

• Three group workshops focussing on strategic topics and application of the framework.

• Individual technical and problem solving support from The Good Economy and / or BSC.
• Small-scale working groups on specialist areas of the framework and its application.
• If there’s demand, webinars and workshops from sector experts to share knowledge on impact measurement and management approaches.

Author

Ed Protheroe

Strategy Consultant, AREF

Ed consults for and acts on behalf of AREF on several Board initiatives around communications, strategy and business development. Before founding consulting firm Parkview Capital Ltd in Feb 2017, he had senior franchise and business management roles at M&G Investments and M&G Real Estate. He has also been Head of Research at a boutique broker and, previously, was an award-winning pan-European equities fund manager at Aberdeen Asset Management.