The FT discusses the (inevitable) ongoing, shrinking of the state’s ability to pay for things and ponders how tax reliefs in Britain will play a role while in the US the aftermath of the Rikers bond failure continues to provoke discussion…
The Shrinking State: Should Investors Fill The Gap? (subscription)
Adam Palin – Financial Times
Generous tax breaks for social investment granted in last years’ Budget provoked much interest from philanthropic-minded investors, though there has been a limited take up.
This could change later in the current tax year. A huge increase is anticipated to investment limits, which is expected to galvanise interest in the sector.
So what is powering the drive to encourage social investment? Against a backdrop of welfare cuts, the government is pushing for the private and non-profit sectors to step forward as the state retrenches from the provision of social care and services.
The tax break to encourage private investors to fill the funding gap — social investment tax relief (SITR) — was the first of its kind in the world, the Treasury claims.
What We Learned From The Failure Of The Rikers Island Social Impact Bond
Donald Cohen & Jennifer Zelnick – NPQ
An experiment using a Social Impact Bond (SIB) to reduce the rate at which juvenile offenders return to jail—so-called “recidivism”—at the troubled Rikers Island prison didn’t work, despite being hailed as a success by some.