Barclays 2010 Annual Report Download - page 27

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– £43bn gross new lending to UK households
and businesses
– 106,000 business start-ups supported in the UK
– £55.3m invested in our communities in 2010
– 62,000 colleagues engaged in our community
programme
– Involved in £7bn worth of total transactions in the
clean energy and cleantech sector in 2010
– 5.37bn tonnes of carbon traded to date, with a
notional value of £72bn
Investing in our communities
Barclays Spaces for Sports is a global programme that
recognises the power of sport to deliver social change.
Since 2004, Barclays has committed £37m towards bringing sustainable
sports sites and projects to disadvantaged communities. After launching
200 community sports sites in the UK, the programme was extended
globally in 2008.
In 2010, we offered young people excluded from mainstream education
across England the chance to join FairPlay, a rugby-based education
programme in partnership with the children’s charity Wooden Spoon,
the Rugby Football Union and the Education Enterprise Trust. The
initiative provides training schemes for more than 2,400 young people
in pupil referral units. The scheme also includes classroom sessions
where young people are taught how to manage their finances through
the Barclays Money Skills programme.
Financing a low carbon economy
Barclays assists renewable energy firms to access finance
from the capital markets and offers advisory services
across the sector.
The transition to a low carbon economy requires a range of solutions,
including new clean forms of generating energy, clean technologies and
infrastructure improvements. Barclays published the Carbon Capital
report to provide analysis of this opportunity over the next ten years.
In Ireland, Barclays has supported the expansion of the onshore wind
sector and played a strategic financing role in vital energy infrastructure
projects. An example of this is our central role in financing EirGrid’s East
West Interconnector project. This will allow Ireland to integrate more
closely with Western European energy markets and release pressure
on the domestic grid while still growing its low carbon generation base.
Supporting UK SMEs
Barclays Business Support Team identifies and works
with customers who are experiencing financial difficulty.
In 2010, 80% of the small and medium sized business customers with
whom we agreed turnaround strategies were successfully restored to
financial health.
The Business Support Team engages with a number of businesses
at the earliest signs of difficulty, facilitating financial and operational
advice and creating lending arrangements more suited to the long
term needs of the business involved. The credit team undertakes
proactive identification of financially stressed customers, with
reactive engagement carried out by the Business Support Team
working alongside the customer’s relationship manager. This
maintains close links and consistency throughout the relationship.
Barclays PLC Annual Report 2010 www.barclays.com/annualreport10 25
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