Features / Bristol and Bath Regional Capital
The CEO who believes money can be a force for good
Bristol & Bath Regional Capital (BBRC) exists “to make money work for good in our region”, says CEO Ed Rowberry.
“And the reason we do that is because we think if you can apply money in the right way, you can make life better for people and communities.”
It’s a big claim for an investor and asset management CIC that was launched in 2015 with the aim of transforming the way finance delivers impact and increases social, environmental and economic benefits.
Ed was involved in incubating BBRC from the start, working alongside partners that included local councils, philanthropists, universities and chambers of commerce to create an organisation that would invest in projects across the two cities and wider region.
“We wanted to effectively create a portal to bring money through the region and deploy it for good,” he explains. “A lot of what we’ll do is we’ll take calculated risks, we won’t try and behave like a normal bank perhaps might.”
Some of the projects that have received early investment from BBRC include Ambition Community Energy’s giant wind turbine in Lawrence Weston, South Bristol Sports Centre in Brislington, The Park at Knowle West and Elderberry Walk housing development in Southmead.
NHS worker Deepthi and her son, Ayan, are residents at Elderberry Walk in Southmead, which received early investment from BBRC – photo: First Avenue Photography
The organisation has invested more than £50m in total and also launched City Funds, in partnership with Bristol City Council and Quartet Community Foundation, where Big Society Capital and the council each paid £5m into the £10m fund that sets out to “transform Bristol by funding solutions that target the causes and effects of inequality”.
Ed says: “The objectives of that fund are to say, given the long term objectives of Bristol, as defined by the One City approach, how do we reduce inequality and how do we accelerate the low carbon economy? And how do we do that via effectively deploying money on a case by case basis.”
By its nature, the work involves partnerships with stakeholders who hold the purse strings and influence. How does the organisation ensure it reaches the projects that need the funds most and fulfils its aim to use money as a force for good?
Ed says that there are layers of decision-making, involving investors and board members but also members of communities who could stand to benefit from the funds, as well as finance experts and an independent technical fund manager.
The BBRC team now have big ambitions to use money and influence further to tackle two of the biggest challenges facing Bristol and the city region; decarbonising the economy and the housing crisis – photo: First Avenue Photography
Building on the success of earlier projects, Ed and his team at BBRC now have big ambitions to use money and influence further to tackle two of the biggest challenges facing Bristol and the city region; decarbonising the economy and the housing crisis.
On the potential to help meet net zero targets, he says: “The challenge is kind of yesterday around net zero. We’ve got these net zero targets and, of course, some will be already working quite hard to meet those, but we suspect some of these targets are going to get missed.
“We believe that we can help by creating a fund that proactively seeks to scale up small and medium enterprises that have products or services that are going to contribute to the low carbon economy, particularly around a just energy transition.”
There are further plans to focus on housing launching in the new year. Elderberry Walk, a multi-tenure housing scheme, could be a pilot for wider ambitions by BBRC, which has set a target of financing 2,500 new homes across the South West over the next five years, particularly focusing on homes for key workers.
“It’s a big challenge, obviously, but if we can do a little bit to help then of course we will,” says Ed, whose professional background is in housing, and who stresses that it’s vital that all of the work BBRC does benefits people and pays into a circular economy that promotes good practices.
“You can use investment to influence the way that things are done, whether that’s creating the type of housing product, or whether it’s influencing the type of people that then eventually live there. If you can start with money that has the right objectives that are aligned to our social and environmental goals, then you can use that influence to shape the project.”
On the launch of the net zero fund and his hopes for the future, Ed adds: “Everyone just needs to do their level best to sort this issue out. That needs a culture where ‘all bets are off, just make it happen’. So there needs to be a risk appetite and a degree of taking ethically appropriate short cuts and experimenting because if we don’t do that, there are far worse consequences.”
Main photo: First Avenue Photography
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