The Five Lamps has a dedicated team responsible for Financial Inclusion.

•    We offer Personal Loans.

•    We provide financial advice to Erimus Housing tenants.

•    The Five Lamps is also the host organisation for Tees Credit Union.

Since we entered the personal finance marketplace in June 2007, the growth of our service has been exceptional. The initial loan fund of £80K, from the Northern Rock Foundation, to provide personal loans to low income individuals has grown to over £1.7million by September 2009.

We have secured contracts to deliver Financial Inclusion Growth Fund throughout County Durham, the Tees Valley, the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire and, most recently in Newcastle upon Tyne. In the current year we will make c5000 loans at an average loan size of c£420.

We have a structured delivery model:

•    Targeting the most disadvantaged communities with discreet advertising

•    Progresses via freephone contact

•    Credit checking

•    Comprehensive financial review

•    Face-to-face meeting

•    Approval of loans within 7 days.

Our team of loan officers and call handlers has grown significantly from one to fourteen in 26 months.

We hope to develop a regional service by 2011, provisionally called ‘The Great North East Loan Fund’, which we believe will be making in excess of 20,000 loans per annum by 2012. We are progressing towards a ground-breaking Memorandum of Understanding with a world-class banking partner to provide additional capital for on-lending, a free impartial and independent education and awareness programme, co-located advisers and access to mainstream financial services for thousands of people throughout our region. The regional service would ensure that 9 of the 25 ‘red areas’ across the country, identified in the Financial Inclusion Task Force/Experian Report in 2007, were covered. In actual fact 15 of the worst 40 would benefit.

Our work in the financial inclusion field has energised the organisation. We are unique among UK Community Development Finance Institutions in that we have a diverse service portfolio with the potential to offer ‘whole family’ support.