Unlisted debt, with a bias towards green energy, charity and community service organisations.
You could look at places like Ethex, Triodos Crowd. The Co-Op recently publised a report that suggested that around 96% community interest companies survive over the long term.
Maybe if you wanted to go futher a field, there's WiseAlpha that gives you access to "corporate debt", but the some platform risk.
I have limited exposure to all of the above.
I'm keen to hear more about the "Green Gilt" that looks as if it's going to be available via NS&I, like ordinary gilts once were. I expect it will have a low, but more generous, coupon than other government paper, but no where near the 5% you can get from community/"green"/charity debt.
I've had a look at the Municipal Debt that's been offered via Abundance, c1% coupon. Too low for me, and lacks the hedge that premium bonds offer.
I don't feel there's a lack of places to find yield, but return means taking on more risk. Doing more work and having more holdings.
It's difficlut to find bargains at the moment, even less so on ORB, but that might be coming, for now I'm happy to pick up selective bits of the above under the heading of ethical alternatives!
- Triodos have 2 offer coming along during March April from
https://treesforlife.org.uk/ and
https://betterfood.co.uk/ (next week?)
I'm waiting on the promised new flow of cases from
https://www.axiafunder.com/ there's start up risk, losses greater then capital deployed risk, but portfolio returns have been in the very high double digits (as I understand it) and there's some discussion there might be a "product" coming along with down side protection and c20% maturity yield.
Interesting times we live in, the opportunities for private investors are large, but so are the risks. Diversification has never been as easy or needed.