Futurebuilders England is the largest social investor in the UK. Its registered office is 6 St Andrew Street, London EC4A 3EA, with a second office in Newcastle. Its role is to invest in third sector organisations delivering public services to improve their financial and strategic capability.
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Government responsibility for Futurebuilders lies within Office of the Third Sector with Angela Evans Smith, Minister for the Third Sector, as lead minister. At the heart of the Futurebuilders programme is the £125 million Futurebuilders (England) Fund.
The fund aims to strengthen the third sector's role in public service delivery through investing in schemes that will demonstrate the added value that the sector can contribute to improving public services. Emphasis is put on loan finance, evaluation and knowledge management and sharing.
The Government's aims for Futurebuilders programme are to:
Futurebuilders was one of the recommendations in the Treasury’s Cross Cutting Review into the role of the voluntary and community sector in public service delivery, September 2002
In the autumn of 2003 the Government ran a tendering process, managed by the Treasury, to find an organisation to run the Futurebuilders Fund. This was won in December 2003 by a consortium made up of Charity Bank, Unity Trust Bank, National Council for Voluntary Organisations and Northern Rock Foundation.
The consortium then set up a non-profit company, Futurebuilders England Ltd, to manage the fund.
In 2007, the Cabinet Office opened the tender to manage the contract of the second phase of the Futurebuilders fund (2008–11).[1]
This tender was won by the Adventure Capital Fund (ACF) and since 1 April 2008 the Futurebuilders England fund has been under the management of ACF.[2]
Futurebuilders offers investment packages to third sector organisations that want to improve public services in England. Part of the investment is always a loan, but parts may also be a grant and professional support.
As of 31 April 2009, Futurebuilders had offered investments of £111.6m to 331 organisations, with a further £11.11m of agreements in principle made to seven organisations.