Building a Bridge Between Private Capital and Public Services

Danny Kruger makes an important case for David Cameron’s “One Nation” government to address a welfare state founded on the ambition of meeting all the needs of all the people, an ambition we must agree is no longer sustainable.

Faced with the need to make even more challenging cuts to government spending, the Prime Minister should not be afraid to reignite his vision for a Big Society that embraces not just citizens as good neighbors, but also the providers of private capital.

When there is, as the famous note says, no money left, we must find the necessary funds to ensure a fair society for all from somewhere and surely not from those least able to contribute.

To attract private funding to public services we must build an efficient, lower cost, easy-to-access and liquid capital market for social enterprise. Social impact bonds, retail charity bonds along with the Social Stock Exchange could bring the needed step change but are still nascent steps toward

I believe, however, the push for greater devolution to cities and regions in the UK harbingers a real revolution where local authorities have greater access to bond funding for their day-to-day expenditure and special projects, to include schools, prisons, job centres, elderly care homes or libraries,

A healthy municipal bond market is a proven magnet for private capital and would offer issuers and investors the chance to bring much innovation and opportunities for the social change that Mr. Kruger and the rest of us want to see.

Patricia Hamzahee

Integriti Capital