England’s blended finance wholesaler receives glowing review, but social investment ecosystem remains fragile
Quadrennial review praises Access for its success in providing wider access to social investment but highlights challenges as mobilising new sources of funding beyond dormant assets proves increasingly urgent.
Access, the Foundation for Social Investment, has “transformed the availability of small-scale, patient finance” to social enterprises and charities since it was founded a decade ago, concludes an independent review published today by the Oversight Trust.
Access is a social investment wholesaler, providing funding to intermediaries to offer blended finance to social ventures in England.
The report, based on 35 interviews with stakeholders and an analysis of data provided by Access, found that the social investor played a “unique role” in providing tailored finance and enterprise support to charities and social enterprises that would otherwise be unable to access investment.
A blended finance structure combines concessional (below market rate or high-risk) or grant capital with regular investment, such as a loan. The concessional part of the deal can de-risk investments in smaller, less established organisations, make up for the relatively high costs of smaller investments, or provide more flexible or patient capital, for example.
But the authors warn that while this approach has enabled Access to reach underserved organisations – something social investment in the UK had been criticised for failing to do – a question remains of how a system that requires subsidy can continue to find sources of capital in the long term.
The challenge now is to build on that success...and ensure this vital ecosystem remains resilient for the long term
Vaughan Lindsay, chair of the Oversight Trust, said: “This review confirms what many across the sector already know: Access has made a difference to charities, social enterprises and the communities they serve.
“The challenge now is to build on that success, mobilise new sources of capital, and ensure this vital ecosystem remains resilient for the long term.”
Beyond dormant assets: funding for blended finance in the future
Seb Elsworth (pictured), CEO of Access, welcomed the findings, and said: “The review rightly highlights both the impact that blended finance has had, and the continued fragility of the ecosystem we operate in.”
The independent review was commissioned by the Oversight Trust which oversees the organisations that receive and manage funds from dormant assets. The Oversight Trust reported on Better Society Capital, the UK’s wholesale social investor, last year.
Access was launched in 2015, initially for 10 years, with a £60m endowment from the UK government, and later received just over £80m from dormant assets (assets that have been inactive for many years and whose owners cannot be found, and made available for certain ‘good causes’ through a specific scheme). A decision was taken to extend its lifetime in 2022, with additional dormant assets funding announced the following year.
Since its inception, grants from Access have catalysed investments totalling £180m, invested across more than 3,500 organisations, and a quarter of Access’s investments are in the 10% most deprived areas in England, according to the review.
The report highlights the wholesaler’s reliance on dormant assets funding: “Social investment for the most vulnerable – and, arguably, for the highest-impact [charities and social enterprises] coming into the social investment pipeline – requires subsidy. This subsidy…is currently largely provided via Access from the dormant assets allocation.”
But dormant assets funding has not proved as reliable as hoped. In June 2025, the UK government named Access as the recipient of £87.5m from an expanded dormant assets scheme. The amount, first announced by the Conservative government in 2023, was a disappointment, after a campaign for a Community Enterprise Growth Plan backed by organisations from across the social impact sector had called for a total of £500m in social investment over 10 years to support the social enterprise sector.
In addition, the latest dormant asset allocation was “significantly delayed” causing a “hiatus” in 2024/25 when Access stopped committing new funds, the report explains. This highlighted the need for the sector to find alternative sources of funding.
Interviewees told the review’s authors that the requirement for blended finance persists and is likely to grow in the future due to a difficult economic environment, “where securing funding is becoming increasingly difficult”.
Access...cannot assume long term financial support after the current round of dormant assets funding
“Access’s resources are not sufficient to meet the need and it cannot assume long term financial support after the current round of dormant assets funding,” the report says.
The review says that social investment intermediaries would be very vulnerable to a loss of funding from Access, but finding more subsidy funding will be a challenge.
Impact investors are not filling the gap for social investment intermediaries, with money increasingly going to commercial impact fund managers rather than social investment, the review says. Meanwhile, grant funders generally are not yet interested in participating in blended finance deals, and tend to be slow to adopt new approaches, making it unlikely that substantial amounts of money could be mobilised from them.
A more ‘high-profile’ role
Opportunities could rise from a government more engaged with social investment, as demonstrated by the creation of the Office for the Impact Economy last autumn, the report says, as well as interest from regional authorities.
Access is currently developing a “mobilisation strategy” to find new sources of concessional capital. Together with its advocacy work with a variety of stakeholders, this will put the organisation in a more “high-profile, sector-shaping” role, according to the review.
Elsworth said: “Meeting the challenges of mobilising new sources of capital and supporting long-term sustainability will rely on collective action, where Access continues to play an active role alongside our partners.”
The authors however warned Access risked doing too much. “Deciding what not to do in Access is critical to allowing it to focus on its ‘USP’, as the Foundation for Social Investment – addressing financial inclusion in marginalised communities.”
Top image: Freepik.
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