Drew’s passion in life has always surrounded social change, as he has previously worked in both Africa and the UK with development charities. He then joined Better Society Capital — then Big Society Capital — as an investment manager in 2018, before being promoted to investment director in April 2021.

Drew explained: “It all happened very quickly. I went from working within a threadbare charity environment to working in investment banking backgrounds and consultancy.

“I found this a bit of a culture shift, but ultimately, everyone at BSC is there because they think it’s a good idea to try and tackle social problems with investor money, and to grow different business models with the social sector.”

Delivering affordable housing

One of the firm’s most recent achievements is its involvement in the Octopus Affordable Housing Fund, which aims to accelerate the delivery of new, affordable and energy-efficient homes for low-income households.

Octopus’ initiative aims to build more than 5,000 affordable homes for families and older people across the UK in the future.

BSC invested £10m into the project in January, with the fund announcing its first close in December.

“We were really excited about Octopus because it is one of the fund managers that could help bring capital at scale and deliver truly affordable homes. We’re also excited by the progress we're making on fundraising, and the deployment of funding for the first developments being brought forward,” said Drew.

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“We'll be watching closely to ensure that Octopus is living up to its impact intent, and delivering homes and quality of housing at the scale that we think is important.”

Are all developers focused on affordable housing delivery?

While improving the supply and quality of affordable housing is at the forefront of BSC’s mind, this isn’t the case for all developers.

Drew said that some developers are beginning to focus largely on affordable housing, because they know that the demand for these types of properties is prevalent. However, he claims there are some developers who are not meeting their section 106 agreements, which relates to planning obligations that may come in the form of a specific provision of affordable housing.

He said: “I don't think it's any secret that there are developers out there who sometimes fail to meet their section 106 requirements, and that can dampen affordable housing supply.

“I think we're just happy that with the help of the great developers and the great investment fund managers and investors, there's a strong commitment to affordable housing,” he concluded.

The government’s role in boosting affordable housing

Drew then went on to highlight what the government could do to spearhead the provision of affordable housing. He said that BSC is looking for the government to play an incentivising “catalytic” role in growing the affordable housing market.

“There are ways in which government can be a catalyst and help leverage private investment alongside public money,” Drew said.

BSC thinks that the government could be using grant alongside social investment to make taxpayers money go further.

For example, recently the firm partnered with the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to help crowd in £130m of investment towards providing affordable homes.