Over the last year, our team has been leading an exciting social investment bid for Bradford district. This £33 million, 10-year initiative brings together grant and repayable finance, in order to provide local place-based partnerships in England with both enterprise support and flexible finance for charities and social enterprises to test and grow.

Access (The Foundation for Social Investment) and Big Society Capital approached Bradford in March 2019 – alongside 11 other places – to invite the city to bid be part of a new place-based blended capital initiative.

It is intended for five places to be successful and share the investment. Specific criteria for the programme haven’t been set with each area being asked to shape how they think investment and support would most benefit their place.

Though the city council was approached initially, they in turn approached Impact Hub Bradford’s CEO Kamran Rashid to lead Bradford’s bid for these funds, including convening and chairing a partnership panel, organising visits by the funders to the city; undertaking surveys; delivering and designing workshops, to shape the content of the bid and leading the city’s response.