It’s an exciting timefor the North West,with Liverpool’s statusas European Capitalof Cul ture 2008and Manchester’sgrowing vibrancy andeconomic dynamism.

But despite these positives, the regioncontinues to face major economic andsocial challenges. That’s why a strongsocial economy sector is so vital, ascharities and social enterprises in theregion are often helping the sociallyexcluded and those that economicgrowth has left behind.

We continue to support a variety ofcharities and social enterprises in theregion, with services ranging from basicbanking to providing loan finance formajor projects. We’re helping theseorganisations as they provide ever-better services and in some cases, toinvest in new forms of incomegeneration so that they can buildthe i r own asse t s and becomemore independent.

We are proud to showcase acouple of examples we’re proud tobe working with.

Each year Unity supports and banksa host of charities and organisationsacross the North West

NorthWestspotlight

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When Liverpool based vocationaltraining provider Huyton ChurchesTraining Services (HCTS) had tochoose which bank to borrow from, itplumped for Unity Trust. The mainreasons were Unity Trust’s honesty andthe support it offered to the charity,says chief executive Brian Conroy.

“We found three banks that werewilling to lend to us, but Unity was theonly one that was upfront about all thecosts involved,” says Brian. The otherbanks had excluded from their offersextra costs that the charity would bebilled for, such as solicitors’ fees.

“The fact that Unity was so transparentin their offer made us feel we couldreally trust them,” says Brian.

He adds that Unity was also the mostsupportive in helping the charitythrough the loan process. “This is thefirst time we’ve ever borrowed in our 27year history and we were a bit nervous,but Unity have been very supportiveand professional in putting a loanpackage together” says Brian.

The £1.5m bridging loan agreed withUnity Trust will help HCTS in anambitious new venture. It has receiveda derelict site worth £1.2m fromKnowsley Borough Council, which itaims to develop as a training centre tohelp local unemployed peoplege t jobs in the area ’ sregeneration schemes.

In the Knowsley area £110m isexpected to be spent on newhousing, schools and otherprojects in the coming decade.“We want to make sure that asmany of the construction jobs goto local unemployed people aspossible,” says Brian.

HCTS has been offered a £2.5m grant

from the ERDF for the scheme and is

match funding this with its own money,

which will largely come from selling its

existing building. “What we needed

was a bridging loan to tide us over

between selling our current base and

building the new one. This loan will

help ensure that we can continue to

deliver these much needed training

programmes, enabling local people

to be a true part of this exciting

re-development scheme” says Brian.

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Huyton ChurchesTraining Services

The fact that Unity was so transparent in theiroffer made us feel we could really trust them ”

”

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T.H.O.M.A.S.Unity Trust is helping Blackburn-basedT.H.O.M.A.S. develop its innovativeresidential approach to tackling drugmisuse and reducing offending.

“Unity Trust have been fantastic in theirsupport for our new residential centre,which we believe will show what asocial economy sector organisationcan achieve with some of these hard-to-reach individuals,” says chiefexecutive Rev. James McCartney.

T.H.O.M.A.S., originally a church-basedorganisation, received a grant ofaround £330 ,000 f rom theFuturebuilders fund and a loan of£420,000 from Unity Trust. It is alsoputting in some money of its owntowards the new residential centre.

The centre, due to open in early 2008,will have room for 20 to 25 people.After six months of rehab, residents willbe moved into one of the organisation’sself-contained flats.

“We’ve developed a ‘covenant’ concept,which means developing a deeperrelationship with these individuals andgiving them a sense of their potentialand ability to change,” says James.

The loan will be repaid with fees for therehab places paid for by the statutorysector, with any surplus used byT.H.O.M.A.S. for other work. James says:“It’s an exciting time for us and is thefirst time we’ve taken out a loan.We see it as a means to expand ourwork and become financially moreself-sufficient.

“We’re also keen to put our work on abusiness-like footing, but with theprofits being used for the benefit of thepeople we work with.”

T.H.O.M.A.S. was put in touch withUnity Trust by Futurebuilders. “We’vefound Unity Trust to be very supportiveand knowledgeable of the kind offinancial challenges we face,” saysJames: “It’s great to be dealing with abank that shares the ethos of the thirdsector and we look forward to a long-term partnership with them.”

“Unity Trust bent over backwards tohelp us, when our high street bankrefused,” says Pat Brand, chiefexecutive of Croxteth Enterprise andTraining Centre (Centec) in Liverpool.

Centec has a contract with LiverpoolCity Council to deliver business start-upadvice but makes most of its incomefrom letting business units to start-ups.Any income above its operating costs isploughed back into the community inthe form of projects to improve localpeople’s skills and help them into jobs.

The social enterprise needed a bankthat understood the sector and waswilling to support it in its plan torefurbish a derelict site that would be

let to local start-up businesses to helpkick start the local economy. “Our highstreet bank just wasn’t interested andthey seemed to view the sector as full oftuppence ha’penny organisations, eventhough we had a building worth over£1m as security,” says Pat.

The organisationobta ined a£250,000 loanf rom theLocal EnterpriseFund/CommunityLoan Fund NorthWest to refurbish an almost derelict sitefor new managed workspace units. ButCentec needed a bank to refinance thisloan. Pat says: “We knew there wouldprobably be months where, because oflate payment of a grant, we might notbe able to make the monthly loan

payment, so we needed a bank thatunderstood how the sector worked.”

Centec had been recommended to talk

to Unity Trust, who agreed to take on the

loan and provide a £20,000 overdraft

that would enable the social enterprise to

ride out any temporary cash

flow problems.

“Without hesitat ion, we

transferred all Centec’s

banking to Unity Trust, as we

were immediately impressed

with its understanding of the

sector and how it operated,” says Pat.

The refurbishment of the site will

enable Centec to double its start-up

tenants from 20 to 40, and to double

its turnover to nearly £1m.

0845 140 1000or visit www.unity.co.uk

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Centec

(Those on theMargin of a Society)

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Tameside Third SectorCoalition (T3SC)

Could we help with your banking needs? Contact your RegionalDevelopment Manager, Peter Forster for a no-obligation chat.

0845 140 1000or visit

www.unity.co.uk

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Peter ForsterUnity Trust Bank plcPO Box 628, Stockport SK4 2WDTel. 0161 432 9077Email: peter.forster@unity.co.uk

Tameside Third Sector Coalition (T3SC)has had Unity Trust as its bank since itwas set up in 2001. “What I really likeabout Unity Trust is that whenever Ineed to talk to someone, I can – I’m notput through to an impersonal callcentre,” says team leader for centralsupport Helen Tallents.

T3SC is the Council for VoluntaryService (CVS) for the Tameside areanear Manchester and supports thelocal voluntary sector by offeringtraining, support and representation. Ithas a turnover of nearly £700,000, andworks with over 800 organisations.

When it comes to the organisation’sbanking needs, Unity Trust has provedto be a professional and supportivepartner, says Helen: “Whenever I’veneeded support over something thebank has been there and we’vedeveloped a good relationship withUnity over the last few years.”

The charity has a single, interest-payingaccount and uses Unity’s onlinebanking facility for monitoring activityand other actions, such as stoppingcheques. It also uses the BACSelectronic payment tool for payingsalaries and other regular transactions.

“We’re very happy with the servicewe’ve got from Unity Trust and the factthat we don’t have that much contactwith them is an illustration of howsmooth the relationship is!” says Helen.

She also pra ises the bank forminimising the bureaucracy inherent insome banking arrangements: “Weregularly re-elect a quarter of our trusteeboard and that means changing thebank account signatories. I’ve noticedthat the process has become a lotquicker and smoother recently.”

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