News and Views

  • Short n Sweet: 12 December 2019 - Businesses pledge climate targets

    Bite-sized stories this week: Businesses pledge big at climate talks, UK construction firm Wates hits £20m social spending target, a new law in Cyprus, grants windfall for Irish projects and a market first in recycled materials for  water company Belu.

  • Scottish government opens up ‘repayable grants’ to environment-focused social enterprises

    Green social enterprises based in Scotland can now access dedicated funding to help them grow their business – but with some strings attached.

  • UK General Election 2019: Key manifesto takeaways on investment, ownership and procurement

    What have the two main parties promised for the social economy? Ahead of Thursday’s vote, Social Investment Business CEO Nick Temple picks apart the detail and offers his analysis of what matters.

  • African Development Bank to launch $270m fund for social impact investors

    "Big news" for impact investors shared at Impact!Africa: the African Development Bank is planning a new Social Investment and Impact Fund for the continent.

  • Impact Finance Bulletin: Leapfrog co-founder sets up Europe’s first specialist investor in impact investment firms

    PLUS: Impact bond firsts in Cambodia and Palestine, Big Issue Invest backs lottery business, Bamboo Capital Partners invests in Indonesian peer-to-peer lending platform, VisionFund raises £10m for microfinance – and more.

  • Former Unilever boss Polman backs legislation on company purpose to ‘upgrade capitalist system’

    Business leaders and academics back Company Purpose (Amendment) Bill to 'displace shareholder primacy' in British board rooms, put forward by UK law firm Bates Wells.

  • FT editor calls for an end to “unchained capitalism”

    As the British Academy launches the second report in its enquiry into the “Future of the Corporation”, the editor of the UK's Financial Times newspaper Lionel Barber calls time on “trickle-down economics”.