Natwest Social and Community Capital (S&CC) doubled its lending to social enterprises to £2.27m last year, latest figures show.

The high street bank’s charitable arm lent the money to 12 social enterprises.

This helped create or protect 118 roles and expand their reach to more than 14,000 people.

More than half of social enterprises supported those in the most deprived areas of England and Scotland.

The findings have emerged in S&CC’s social impact report for 2023.

Victoria Papworth, CEO of NatWest Social and Community Capital, said: “We’re thrilled to have doubled our lending to social enterprises last year, boosting employment and economic opportunity across the UK,” said NatWest S&CC chief executive Victoria Papworth.

“We’re thrilled to have doubled our lending to social enterprises last year, boosting employment and economic opportunity across the UK,” said NatWest S&CC chief executive Victoria Papworth.

“Over half our investees are small businesses with fewer than 10 employees, and 80% of them deliver impact locally or regionally.

She added that S&CC benefitted from a £1.5m donation from NatWest during the year.

Among social enterprises supported is Kent based bemix, which supports people with learning difficulties and those with autism to find work. NatWest’s loans helped it to build new premises in Chatham, Kent, and expand its services.

Bemix chief executive Matt Clifton said: “We were looking to expand bemix’s services in Kent to help more people with learning difficulties and autism move from education into the workplace.

“The problem we faced was that traditional education funding is not designed to support quick scaling. S&CC’s financial support was vital in helping bemix to maintain a healthy cashflow while building our new premises in Chatham.”

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