Social and community investments: profit contingent loans for economically disadvantaged regions

There is an increasing recognition that, without government assistance, market economies do not always deliver the socially best outcomes in a regional context. Economically disadvantaged areas would seem to be less likely to have an inherent capacity to generate economic activity or to deliver automatically socially propitious outcomes. In such circumstances, there might be a strong case for public sector intervention of various types which, to be effective, might need to be able to tap into and build upon local enterprise and drive.