The UK Government has launched a consultation on potential changes to the regulations on taxation of securitisation companies. Amongst other points, it is considering lowering the threshold which determines the minimum size for Retail Charity Bond issues.
Allia C&C has joined with the Impact Investing Institute, Big Society Capital and Social Enterprise UK to lobby for this threshold to be reduced to £5 million, providing many more charity borrowers with access to the bond markets. If you represent a UK charity, we invite you to add your voice to our campaign by becoming a signatory to the statement below.
For more information please see our full consultation response.
“As charities in the UK our mission is to create positive social impact – not only improving lives but also generating significant savings to the public purse. In order to grow our activity and deliver greater impact, we may from time to time look to borrow money to invest in the development of our assets.
In the future we may want to borrow amounts of at least £5 million but less than £10 million. Under the current legislation we are barred from raising this funding in the bond markets through the RCB platform that was created for charities like us. While we may be able to obtain offers of secured lending from the banking sector, we are denied the option of reaching out to retail and professional investors to raise unsecured medium-term funding of less than £10 million through RCB.
We cannot say what source of funding will be most appropriate for us when we come to borrow. But it is not fair for the Government to impose regulatory barriers that prevent us from considering an RCB issue. We therefore advocate that the minimum note issuance threshold for securitisation companies be reduced to £5 million.”