The Impact World this Week: 8 May 2026

UK: Social enterprises recognised in King’s Awards for Enterprise

Social enterprises Finance Earth, the Edinburgh Remakery and Redemption Roasters are among the nearly 200 businesses receiving this year’s King’s Award for Enterprise, now in its 60th year. The Edinburgh Remakery (CEO Elaine Brown is pictured, left), which tackles IT waste and digital exclusion, was recognised in the “sustainability” category, as was Finance Earth, a social enterprise that mobilises private sector funding towards nature-based solutions. 

• Read more: Building a market for nature – the finance innovators racing to save our ecosystems

Social enterprise fintech Salad, a community development finance institution that provides affordable credit to consumers otherwise excluded from mainstream finance, was celebrated in the “innovation” category. Enterprise East Group CIC, which supports disadvantaged people to gain skills and sustainable employment, and Redemption Roasters, a roaster and coffee shop business which provides professional coffee industry training to prison leavers to reduce reoffending, were among the winners in the “promoting opportunity” category. Other awardees include Charity Bank, Ethstat Ethical Stationery and Aspire Community Works.

UK: Government seeks fund manager for its Better Futures Fund

The UK government has opened a competition to appoint a delivery partner for the first round of the £500m Better Futures Fund. The first tranche of the social outcomes fund will commit £37m of government funding to tackling child poverty through outcomes-based contracts – where the government commissions services from providers but only pays if specific outcomes are achieved, with social investors providing upfront funding. Applications are open until 12 June and the fund will open for project bids in the summer. 

• Read more: UK government announces £500m social outcomes fund to support vulnerable children

EU: Social economy pitched as ‘key ally’ to eradicate poverty in Europe

The social economy could be a key ally to deliver the EU’s first Anti-Poverty strategy, according to Social Economy Europe. With one in five Europeans currently at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the EU Commission this week published a strategy to tackle poverty across the bloc, including a target to eradicate it by 2050.

The Commission presents this goal as a “collective responsibility” that requires “coordinated efforts at all levels”, including governments, social partners, civil society and the private sector. Social economy organisations are highlighted in the strategy as a key partner to provide quality jobs to people experiencing poverty, and the Commission says it will “assess the role” of public financial support for social economy organisations such as social enterprises. 

Social Economy Europe, a representative body for social economy organisations, argues the social economy can be a central partner for the delivery of the strategy – from quality jobs to affordable housing – but warns that current policy proposals do not offer the support the sector needs.

• Read more: The EU’s souring relationship with the US is an opportunity social entrepreneurs must seize

UK: Bob Geldof backs pre-fab model to fight homelessness

“Because of their beauty and their space and their size, and the materials used – the smell of fresh wood is fantastic – they give the people living in them a dignity.” Rock star and activist Bob Geldof was impressed on his visit to one of Social Bite’s villages for homeless people last week in Rutherglen, Scotland. The social enterprise is now offering a franchise model to local authorities across the UK for its villages, which offer temporary accommodation in prefabricated buildings and a supportive community to help people move forward to find jobs and permanent homes. “It’s very difficult to see why there’s such a homelessness problem in this country, when these could be built for a relatively small amount of money,” Geldof added. (See the video of Bob Geldof’s visit here.)

Kenya: Refugee Investment Facility makes first investment

A bottled water and plastic recycling company has secured the first investment from the Refugee Investment Facility in Kenya. LIFTA Kenya operates in Kakuma, home to more than 300,000 refugees and asylum seekers. The company employs 44% of its permanent staff and 60% of casual workers from the refugee community, and responds to the area’s lack of both clean water and waste management facilities. The Refugee Investment Facility is a partnership between the Danish Refugee Council and impact investment firm iGravity. It provides impact-linked loans, meaning the conditions of the loan depend on impact outcomes. The investment into LIFTA will support the business’s growth and job creation.

Global: Co-operatives call for peace  

The theme for the 2026 International Day of Co-operatives on 4 July was announced this week as ‘Co-operatives for a Peaceful World’. Jeroen Douglas, director general of the International Cooperative Alliance, said: “Across sectors and regions, co-operatives contribute to peaceful societies by strengthening local economies, expanding access to vital services, promoting democratic participation, creating opportunities for all and fostering trust and solidarity.”

Figure of the week: 102

Nature Impact, a “natural capital developer” that purchases land to restore natural habitats, has acquired 102 acres of degraded farmland in Kent, UK, to be turned into wildflower meadows, orchards and biodiversity corridors, thanks to investment from Triodos Bank. The project will be financed through the sale of biodiversity units – a standard measure of natural habitat that can be traded used to assess biodiversity net gain under English law.

Movers and Shakers

• Danyal Sattar is the new managing director of Impact Labs at Resonance, the UK social impact investor. He was previously CEO at Big Issue Invest.
• Erika Rushton and Candice Hampson have joined the Resonance board. Hampson has been investment director at Better Society Capital and now runs the consultancy Forty Turns. Rushton co-founded Kindred, a member-led group of socially-trading organisations in Liverpool which also runs a social investment fund. 
• Tristan Ace is now country director of Turquoise Mountain in Myanmar. The non-profit was founded by King Charles III and supports artisans and the preservation of cultural heritage in Afghanistan, Jordan, Myanmar, Palestine and Saudi Arabia. He was previously AVPN’s chief engagement officer. 

Top image: the Edinburgh Remakery provides ethical IT waste decommissioning and repairs donated IT equipment for people facing digital exclusion.