71. Charity Investment Forum, Cazenove Capital, 16 November 2023

I attended this meeting as a Trustee of the Water Conservation Trust, along with trustees from a very wide range of other Trusts.  They included very local geographically-defined Trusts through to some very large multi-million Trusts.  The Water Conservation Trust is split between two funds, one of which is managed by Cazenove.

The presentations started with an explanation of why their performance had been so poor, and a not very optimistic outlook for the future.  UK growth rates had fallen; while their growth portfolio had outperformed inflation, the growth-inflation trade-off had worsened.  Schroder’s Chief Economist noted that the biggest impact of Brexit had been on the supply of staff with a belated relaxation of entry requirements from India, the Philippines and Africa to compensate.  One in four households are behind in their utility bills and in the past few years there had been an 81% increase in the demand for charity services. 86% of UK cities exceed air pollution standards.  Decarbonisation was accelerating and there were opportunities in commodities.

The gap between the ideas and actions of charities was highlighted.

This was reflected in the weak commitments to climate action.

We then had an update from the Charity Commission on investing charity money.  A strong message that charities can invest with a view to both achieving their purposes directly through the investment and making a financial return.

We then had a fascinating and very entertaining talk by Professor Tim Spector of King’s College, on food for life, the new science of eating well.  You will have to read his book but I will say that I am aiming for a more rainbow diet.