How it works
No matter if you are an experienced investor or not, our online investment platform lets you get started investing in councils in minutes. And our simple online platform gives you all the options you need to manage your investments without any hassle, whether you want to invest £5 or £500,000.
Lend money to councils to fund climate action
Our council investments are very simple. You lend money to councils, and they use that money to help fund projects from their climate action investment programme. They then pay you a rate of interest which is fixed for the life of the investment, and you will get regular updates on what your money is funding.
Earn competitive fixed long term rates
The interest rate for a council loan is closely related to the cost of borrowing for the UK Government (the Gilt rate). As market interest rates rise, the cost of UK Government borrowing also increases and therefore the rate on a new council loan will also increase - the reverse is also true. That means our council investments always offer an interest rate that is competitive with other comparable savings and investment products.
The interest rate on a council investment is fixed for the life of the investment, giving you certainty on how much you are due to get back, and when. With the added benefit of seeing your nest egg helping to fund real climate projects around the country.
Regular returns across the investment term
All our council investments offer regular six monthly interest payments across the investment term, and you start earning interest from the day you invest. Some also pay back some of your invested capital every six months as well. So you won’t have to lock your money away for years before you receive any returns.
What you do with this regular income is up to you. You have the choice to withdraw your interest as income, with no charges for withdrawals, or reinvest them into new council investments to continue to grow your portfolio.
An alternative low risk investment for your portfolio
Low risk investments are an important element of a diversified portfolio. All investments carry some risk, and you can read more about them for our council investments on the link below. But investing in councils is low risk, comparable with the risk of investing in a UK Government Gilt. In fact, no UK council has ever failed to pay back a loan made to it.
No fees, whatever amount you want to invest
It is important to us that everyone gets the opportunity to invest, regardless the amount. That means no fees to investors, whether you are investing £5 or £500,000. And when we say no fees to investors, we mean it - no fees for investing, opening an ISA, using our marketplace to sell an investment, or anything else. Instead, we charge a fee to the councils who raise money on Abundance.
Get tax free returns through an Innovative Finance ISA
Our council investments are eligible to be held in an Innovative Finance ISA. That means you can invest using your annual tax free ISA allowance of up to £20,000 and pay no tax on the interest you receive.
Trade on our marketplace
Our council investments are fixed term investments so your money is tied up until it is repaid. However, we understand that circumstances can change and you may need to access your money earlier than planned. That’s where our marketplace can help. It lets you put up your investment for sale for other Abundance investors to buy, letting you exit when you need to.