Prime Minister David Cameron launched the world’s first Social Stock Exchange at the inaugural G8 conference on social impact investing in London today.

The Social Stock Exchange will be an online portal showcasing social impact businesses. It will make it easier for philanthropists to consider the social as well as the financial impacts of their investments.

He also announced two further measures to incentivise social investments, a consultation on tax breaks for social investments and help for communities to buy local assets.

Social Investment Tax Relief could generate an extra half a billion pounds in social investments over the next five years. Meanwhile, Big Society Capital, the world’s first social investment bank, and the Big Lottery Fund are developing a £50 million Community Assets Fund which will provide a blend of grants and loans to help communities through the phases of local ownership.  This is part of a longer term commitment from Big Society Capital and the Big Lottery Fund to provide a quarter of a billion pounds of finance over the rest of this decade to help communities with ambitions to own local assets.

Prime Minister Cameron said: “Social investment can be a great force for social change on the planet. It can help us to build bigger and stronger societies. That power is in our hands. And together we will use it to build a better future for ourselves, for our children and for generations to come.”

Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd added: "We have the opportunity to transform the funding environment for ambitious charities and social enterprises. Social investment is the opportunity to move away from hand to mouth funding and access long-term affordable finance. It can support much needed growth and social innovation. It is early days and it is not for everyone but the opportunity is an important one. That is why more and more countries are looking closely at the lead we have taken in the UK."

An open letter from industry today congratulated the Prime Minister and G8 countries on their efforts to grow the global impact investment market. The letter was signed by over 80 leading voices from finance and civil society – including JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Big Society Capital, KPMG, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations and the Omidyar Network.

For more statistics on the social investment market see Cabinet Office report “Social enterprise: market trends”

The consultation on Social Investment Tax Relief can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-social-investment-tax-relief.