An antiracism charity has commended the Church of England for its acceptance of recommendations to create a fund to make reparations to communities affected by the legacies of African chattel enslavement.

A report by the independent Oversight Group recommends that the new impact investment fund, to be called the Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice, should provide at least $1 billion in reparations, raised from the CoE and other organisations. The CoE had originally earmarked $100 million for the fund.

The report also recommends that the timeline for delivery of the fund should be expedited and completed in less time than the nine years originally recommended.

Additionally, the report calls on the CoE to fully acknowledge and apologise for “the harms caused by all its historic denial that Black Africans are created in the image of God, for its deliberate actions to destroy diverse African religious belief systems and to facilitate work that builds the spiritual connection of Africa and the African diaspora with the Gospel and the diverse spiritual practices of African forebears”.

A spokeswoman from Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda, said: “Curb notes that the fund and grant-funding programme is the most significant act of acknowledgement and repair yet made by any UK institution that was in receipt of funds earned through the enslavement of African people and their descendants.”

In the report, available at hrjfund.org, 41 recommendations were made.

The Curb spokeswoman added: “The fund would invest in Black-led businesses focusing on education, economic empowerment, health outcomes and improving access to land and food, as well as provide grants to address these and other issues brought up for communities impacted by the legacies of African chattel enslavement.

“The hope is for the impact investment and spending programme to start operating later in 2024.

“Curb supports the growing worldwide call for reparations for Atlantic chattel slavery and supports joining the Caricom Commission for the Reparations Commission, formed in 2013, which rests on a ten-point plan that calls on European governments to make full and formal apologies, provide funding for health and education, and help improve Caribbean countries' access to technology, among other points.

“Curb’s own reparation document, entitled Racial Justice Platform, first published in 2012, now includes 52 reparation recommendations and is currently being researched and reviewed with publication expected by July 2024.”

According to Oversight Group’s report: “Crimes against humanity rooted in African chattel enslavementhave caused damage so vast it will require patient effort spanning generations to address. But we can start today, in small and large ways.”

Separately, according to a survey conducted in England, Scotland and Wales by The Repair Campaign, 60 per cent of people in Britain agree that Caribbean nations and descendants of enslaved people should receive a formal apology for the horrors of transatlantic chattel slavery.

More than half stated that the apology should come from the British Government or from organisations who historically profited from slavery in the Caribbean.

Additionally, four in ten people agreed that Caribbean nations should receive financial compensation to make amends for the legacy of slavery and colonialism.

Denis O’Brien. the architect of The Repair Campaign, said: “It starts with an apology. Finally, after years of earnest effort from thousands of incredible advocates, campaigners and citizen consumers that has fallen on deaf, or more accurately, closed ears, we’ve reached the point where there’s raging debate about reparations and the legacy of transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans across traditional and social media. That in and of itself is a win.

“It's hugely encouraging to see the scale of support in the UK for an apology. The government and monarchy can no longer afford to ignore calls for reparatory justice. The UK’s extraordinary wealth was generated from free labour, free lands and the highly profitable proceeds of slavery. It was a 300-year holocaust.

“There is clear support for action. People are fed up with being patronised by right-wing politicians and media commentators who've tried to divide communities over this issue. Making amends for the injustice of slavery is about strengthening our connections, both within our communities and between the UK and the Caribbean. The Repair Campaign is calling on the UK to do the right thing. Three little words, ‘I am sorry’.”