Welcome to your round-up: a monthly selection of news hand-picked to help keep you up to date, for businesses, investors and others working to create positive impact.
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Corporate purpose
Bates Wells’ Louise Harman and Oliver Scutt will be at Blue Earth Summit 2026 on 15 October, joining a panel with Frieda Gormley, Co-Founder and Director at B Corp House of Hackney, about the ‘Board Room of the Future’ and sharing insights into the legal model behind “Nature on the Board”. Also, Oliver Scutt will be joining B Lab for their workshop “What good is purpose-led business without changing the system?” as a facilitator for one of the breakout groups. If you’ll be joining the conference, please do book in a coffee with us via the Blue Earth Summit app – we’d love to see you.
A new policy paper from B Lab UK, Building an economy that works for all, argues that the UK B Corp community already demonstrates the business practices that, if adopted across the UK, could help create the kind of economy that the Government aims to achieve. The paper notes key performance indicators, including that UK B Corps have achieved 20% turnover growth (approximately 7 times higher than all UK SMEs) and 11% employee headcount growth (compared to 2% for all UK SMEs, 2024-2025), and that over half of UK B Corps are in at least one of the 8 high-growth sectors identified in the Modern Industrial Strategy (apart from Defence, and compared to only a quarter of wider UK businesses). The paper sets out 5 recommendations for policymakers, including legislating for mandatory human rights and environmental supply chain due diligence, actively promoting and encouraging circularity in product design, and boosting tax transparency for large multinationals. For more, B Lab UK has published an article providing context to the policy paper.
Co-operatives UK has published Co-operative and Mutual Economy 2026, which presents data on the landscape for co-operatives, mutuals, building societies and employee-owned businesses. The report highlights the strength and potential of the sector, finding that it generates more than £240 billion in annual income and supports over 1.7 million jobs, but also that more support is needed to scale. It finds that co-operatives are more than twice as likely to survive the first five years and perform strongly on measures around fair work and women’s leadership, compared to the wider business community. The report also shows that the number of employee-owned businesses increased by 22.2% in the last year, with a 10.9% increase in combined income.
The European Commission has published Impact-driven businesses in the EU: State of play and future prospects, a very detailed exploratory study of the emergence, diversity and role of impact-driven businesses across the EU. The report examines barriers to development and scaling and considers possible areas for future EU policy development.
B Corps
B Lab UK is seeking views from businesses to inform its response to the government’s consultation on Modernising Corporate Reporting, which is described by government as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset the UK’s corporate reporting framework”. The consultation closes on 30 November 2026. Among other points, the proposed changes are designed to hone in on the needs of investors and creditors, and would narrow the scope of non-financial reporting requirements. Chris Turner, CEO of B Lab UK, has commented on the consultation: “We back less duplication and lighter admin, but stripping reporting back to what’s ‘financially material’ is short-termist, and sends the wrong signal to business. It trades long-term health for short-term gain.” You can share your views on the consultation in B Lab UK’s short poll (you don’t need to have read the consultation in detail to respond to the poll, but detailed responses are welcome).
Five B Corps have been given a ‘TV advertising debut’, having won in the second round of Channel 4 Sales’ B Corp competition, run in partnership with B Lab UK. The businesses are SURI, Holy Moly Dips Ltd, Klyk, Faith In Nature and TOTM, whose adverts were set to premiere during The Great Celebrity Pottery Throw Down and will be featured on Channel 4’s streaming platform. You can view the adverts on Channel 4 Sales’ website.
Benedict Heaver, chief executive of family-owned healthcare software company Streets Heaver, has written for B Lab UK about how the new B Corp certification standards help to ensure that purpose is genuinely embedded into the business, and why he wants government to take notice.
With the EU directive on ‘empowering consumers for the green transition’ having come into application in all EU Member States as of last month, B Lab Europe has written an article about what the directive means for B Corps and sustainability communication. It includes discussion of the issue of ‘old stock’ and the attempts being made to coordinate national approaches to non-compliance across the region. For more from B Lab Europe, findings from the 2026 European Brand Awareness Study indicate that B Corp certification recognition is rising across Europe.
Social enterprise
Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) has shared survey results regarding recent policy changes on social value in public procurement. The feedback from the survey supports several recommendations for government, including widening the new, narrower definition of social value. SEUK intends to put the recommendations to government with a letter to the Cabinet Office signed by social enterprises that participated in the survey.
Social Enterprise World Forum has launched a global Social Investment Manifesto calling on the social investment sector to “fix a structural mismatch between finance and mission-driven social enterprises”. The manifesto sets out seven recommendations for coordinated action, including utilising blended finance models, supportive policy levers, community wealth building and creating system-wide infrastructure.
The School for Social Entrepreneurs has launched an accelerator programme aimed at tackling homelessness, alongside the Deposit Protection Service. The ‘DPS Social Commitment Programme’ aims to fund and train 200 VCSE leaders across England and Wales to tackle housing insecurity in their communities. Participants will receive grants of up to £10,000, as well as training and mentoring, to design and deliver solutions rooted in local community knowledge.
Government has announced a new £10 million Co-operative Development Programme, part of a wider scheme of funding to help restore derelict high street buildings and bring people back to town centres, furthering the government’s aims for place-based regeneration. The announcement states that the programme will “help mayors and strategic authorities set up more co-operative businesses, owned and run by the staff, customers and communities who use them”. For more, Co-operatives UK welcomed the announcement.
Climate & biodiversity
In light of the upcoming Biodiversity COP17, more than 130 businesses and financial institutions have signed an open letter calling for governments to launch cross-ministerial and multistakeholder national processes, within the next 12 months, to develop incentive reform plans (press release). The letter argues that “incentive structures unintentionally reward practices that deplete natural resources, distorting market signals, masking and underpricing nature-related risks, and steering capital away from more resilient practices”. Signatories include Arup, Danone, H&M Group, Legal & General, L’Occitane, Natura, Triodos Bank and Unilever, and together they represent revenues of over US$600 billion and assets under management over US$4.7 trillion.
CIWM has commissioned new research, in partnership with the Circular Economy Institute, finding that a coordinated strategy is needed to unlock investment into the UK’s circular infrastructure. The research examined investment barriers and opportunities across four material streams: EEE and WEEE, plastics, consumer packaging, and textiles. It found that investors view circular infrastructure as high risk, with weak market signals, uncertain end markets and insufficient long-term policy clarity, which is holding investment back. The report calls for the publication of the anticipated UK Circular Economy Growth Plan and argues that circular economy infrastructure should be considered critical national infrastructure, in support of the UK’s resource security, resilience and competitiveness. Its recommendations include greater use of public investment to de-risk projects and attract private capital, targeting support to the ‘missing middle’ between the innovation stage and market readiness.
A new £20 million social impact investment fund has been launched by Christian Aid to support locally owned businesses helping communities to cope with climate change. Owned by a special purpose subsidiary investment vehicle, the ‘Christian Aid Resilient Futures Fund’ will invest through impact fund managers and a direct-lending portfolio, in enterprises in areas such as ‘climate-smart farming’, renewable energy, clean water and local food systems, as well as providing technical assistance where needed.
The Green Finance Institute has announced the launch of the ‘GFI Transition Finance Lab’, delivered in partnership with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. It aims to bring together project sponsors, government, public finance institutions, regulators and private capital to support investment readiness and scaling for companies and projects critical to the UK’s clean energy and industrial transition. The lab’s initial focus will include local and community energy, heat networks, ports and offshore wind infrastructure, and battery and hydrogen supply chains, including new technologies and other energy and infrastructure initiatives that otherwise might struggle to attract investment.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has released its 2026 Status Report, marking three years since the publication of the TNFD Recommendations. Among the report’s findings, over 1,000 organisations across 56 jurisdictions have published a level of disclosure in line with the TNFD Recommendations (a 100% increase year-on-year), and 100% of investors surveyed expressed concern about the effects of nature loss on financial markets, with 59% ranking nature among their most important sustainability topics. In addition, over 70% of survey respondents said they favour the certainty and consistency of mandatory reporting standards.
Impact investing
The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) has published the Impact Investing Messaging Playbook, developed with support from the Soros Economic Development Fund and reflecting the work of the Investors’ Council Impact Narrative Taskforce. The playbook aims to provide clear, concise and unified messaging on the purpose and work of the impact investing sector. GIIN describes the need for the playbook, noting increasing scrutiny of impact investing and the risks of inconsistent messaging, which it argues can be mitigated through a shared foundation for communicating about impact investing that supports collective credibility as the sector grows.
Bates Wells’ Sung-Hyui Park, Nirav Patel and colleagues have advised AgDevCo Ventures on the creation of its investment templates, reflecting the values of clarity, proportionality and accessibility. AgDevCo Ventures is an investment vehicle within the AgDevCo group – a specialist impact investor that invests in the sub-Saharan African agriculture sector. It will target investment specifically in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and Black African-owned and -led businesses, as well as businesses owned and led by women.
Boston Consulting Group has published The Multiplier Effect of Impact Capital, which examines barriers to greater use of impact-first investing. Drawing on a survey of over 100 funders and advisers, as well as in-depth interviews, the report finds that awareness of impact-first investing is high, but that capital allocation remains limited. It identifies a lack of investable opportunities, impact measurement challenges, and limited expertise as key barriers.
British International Investment (BII) has launched a refreshed Gender and Inclusive Finance Toolkit for investors, fund managers, and businesses. The toolkit forms part of BII’s commitment to advancing women’s economic empowerment through investment, under its 2026–31 strategy, which includes a target for 30% of new investments to qualify under the 2X Challenge.
Responsible Finance has published analysis of enquiries to Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) regarding the refinancing of high-interest loans, drawing on enquiries received by 10 CDFIs between March and June 2026. It found that, of the 28 businesses the CDFIs were able to refinance, loan repayments were reduced by an average of around £10,000 per month per business. The report sets out key themes and recommendations arising from the research.
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