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
This summer, Bates Wells will be hosting our annual Be More Radical gathering on the evening of 7 July, bringing people together from across the Impact Economy on our rooftop garden in London, overlooking the Thames. Our theme will be ‘The Impact Economy: From Policy Signal to Market Reality’. We’ll hear insights from inspiring thought-leaders, including Heather Davenport, Interim Director of the Office for the Impact Economy at the Cabinet Office; Karl Harder of Abundance Investment; Sarah Angold from 29acacia and Matt Parfitt of Grace Enterprises. If you’d like to join us, please register your interest here.
The Better Business Act campaign marked 20 years of the Companies Act 2006 (“the Act”) on #BetterBusinessDay 2026. The campaign calls for urgent reform of s.172 of the Act, which sets out the overarching duty of directors to run the company for the benefit of its shareholders, to move to a multistakeholder approach to governance. London Daily News reported on the Better Business Day event at Westminster, including quotes from co-chairs of the Better Business Act campaign, retail expert and founder of Portas, Mary Portas, and CEO of Tony’s Chocolonely, Douglas Lamont. Bates Wells was delighted to host a gathering at the end of the day, bringing businesses together in support of the campaign.
The chair of New Economies for Eradicating Poverty, Olivier De Schutter, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, economist Kate Raworth and professors Jayati Ghosh, Thomas Piketty and Jason Hickel have written for The Guardian to endorse the ‘Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth’, developed by the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. In this opinion piece, the authors argue that global economies must be redesigned around collective wellbeing within planetary boundaries, rather than prioritising growth at any cost. For more, the World Inequality Lab has published its new Global Justice Report on a dedicated website, which allows users to explore the pathways set out to create significantly improved global social equity, within planetary boundaries.
B Corps
B Lab has announced the first nine businesses to complete certification under the new global B Corp certification standards, including UK jewellery brand Wanderlust Life, global cosmetics business Rituals, and Italian, listed benefit corporation Xenia, in the hospitality sector.
The B Corp movement marks its 20th anniversary this year, having grown from 81 founding businesses to over 10,700 businesses across 104 countries and with stakeholder governance supported by evidence linking it to resilient performance. B Lab’s anniversary Impact Report highlights B Corps’ contributions to climate action and stable, sustainable growth. The report shares that, going forward, the movement’s focus will include scaling impact through the new, stronger certification standards, collective action and coordinated advocacy.
B Lab UK reflects on its Greenshouting Guide, developed with Creatives for Climate and Nice and Serious, and launched in March at ChangeNow in Paris. The guide introduces an approach to sustainability communications, encouraging brands to share honest, evidence-based stories about their progress and challenges. It responds to a growing trend of ‘greenhushing’, arguing that staying silent on sustainability undermines trust and weakens impact. B Lab UK reports strong global engagement with the report, with brands recognising transparency and authenticity as key to effective sustainability messaging.
Climate & biodiversity
The Nature’s Rights Bill, introduced for the 2026/27 legislative year, has had its first and second reading in the House of Lords. The private members bill, sponsored by Baroness Bennett as part of the Nature’s Rights campaign, would introduce a number of measures, including recognising Nature as a legal subject, establishing a legal duty of care for public bodies, businesses and individuals, providing procedural rights for the protection of Nature and mechanisms for dispute resolution and enforcement, and establishing a Nature Guardianship Council, Bioregional Councils and a Nature’s Rights Tribunal. For more on the Rights of Nature, Lawyers for Nature has published a new report, Realising Rights of Nature: Conceptual Foundations for Legislation by Alex May, that explores legal pathways for recognising Nature’s rights.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced the UK’s latest emissions target, subject to parliamentary approval, with the stated intention of “getting Britain off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets and onto clean homegrown power”. The government has set out its proposed target for the seventh Carbon Budget – a science-led target of 87% emissions reduction for 2038 to 2042, endorsed by the Environmental Audit Committee and the Climate Change Committee. For more on Net Zero, global standards body ISO is consulting on a new, independently verifiable Net Zero standard for organisations.
LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment has published a paper analysing the development of attribution science in ‘polluter pays’ climate litigation, helping claimants demonstrate the necessary causal chain between greenhouse gas emissions, by state or non-state actors, and past or future harm. The paper describes in detail how this area of climate science informs the legal analysis of claims. For more on global climate litigation, environmental law charity ClientEarth has published an update on the passing of a UN General Assembly resolution proposed by Vanuatu, as part of the process of translating into political action the International Court of Justice’s recent landmark opinion on states’ obligations regarding global warming.
The World Benchmarking Alliance has published analysis of 400 major financial institutions and found that, while transition-planning frameworks are emerging, progress on capital allocation and fossil fuel phase-out remains limited, and transparency and disclosure remain inconsistent. Only around a third of institutions analysed have credible transition plans, and many lack clear targets for financing low‑carbon solutions, with low‑carbon activities accounting for just 2.7% of total financed activity.
Impact investing
The Big Nature Impact Fund, described as the UK’s first blended finance fund for nature restoration, announced its first close at £65m, exceeding its target of £50m. The fund, managed by Finance Earth, is anchored by £30m invested by Defra and structured as ‘first loss’ capital, and aims to generate revenue by selling carbon credits and biodiversity units through investment in woodland creation, peatland restoration, and other habitat creation.
The Impact Investing Institute has reflected on the Housing for a Good Start initiative, highlighting how housing can better support babies, toddlers and their caregivers during the developmentally important early years of life. The Impact Investing Institute and the Van Leer Foundation, alongside collaborating organisations, are calling on housing investors, developers and managers to engage with the initiative, and a ‘Housing for a Good Start Playbook’ is expected to be published in the autumn.
Access – the Foundation for Social Investment has announced more than £1m in funding to support the Diversity Forum and the Equality Impact Investing Project (EIIP) to deliver “against their shared goals of making social investment more equitable and better able to reach underserved communities”. While the Diversity Forum will focus on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) practice and accountability across the social investment sector, EIIP will “focus on wider ecosystem change” and mobilising capital for equality impact. Access intends these initiatives to “complement the role of Pathway Fund as a racial equity-focused wholesaler” alongside other EDI work across the sector. For more, see the Diversity Forum’s announcement.
Impact Europe has published a short report exploring outcomes-based finance as a tool for systems change, building on its earlier Collaboration in Action research on cross‑sector collaboration for systems change (press summary). The report focuses on how outcomes‑based approaches (including social impact bonds and outcomes funds) can help align incentives, share risk and strengthen accountability across public, private and philanthropic actors, and draws on practitioner insights to assess opportunities and barriers in practice.
Social enterprise
Social Enterprise UK has published the latest annual report on the Buy Social Corporate Challenge, an initiative for large businesses aiming to collectively spend £1bn with social enterprises through their procurement (press summary). Covering progress between 2016 and 2025, the report found that the total spend by corporate participants on goods and services supplied by social enterprises amounted to £864m, which supported the creation of nearly 8,000 jobs. The report highlighted that 65% of participating businesses said that working with social enterprises had helped them to win new business. Phase two of the challenge will launch in spring 2027.
Bates Wells’ Louise Harman and Olivia Woodward have written about the growing momentum of the UK Impact Economy. They highlight the crucial role of collaboration and community‑led solutions in social investment, alongside expected growth in purpose‑driven, regenerative and circular business models, driven by innovation and renewed government engagement, and a sense of optimism for future developments.
The Maple Review has published its report, Exclusion and Enterprise: Entrepreneurship, Poverty and Breaking Down Barriers, which examines the barriers to entrepreneurship caused by economic deprivation (summary). The government-backed review drew on evidence from 80 support organisations, alongside a national survey of over 600 entrepreneurs from low‑income backgrounds. It provides recommendations for government, corporate partners and the business support community. While the report does not discuss social entrepreneurship specifically, its findings may be interesting for anyone founding a social enterprise, supporting social enterprise startups, or otherwise interested in the growth of the sector.
The World Economic Forum has published an article arguing that traditional venture capital timelines often misalign with the needs of social enterprises, which tend to require flexible financing and longer timeframes. The article highlights that using alternative approaches, not solely centred on accelerating growth, including blended finance and impact-linked loans, can produce long term social impact through balanced and sustainable models.
ESG
Blueprint for Better Business has published commentary on the importance of a human-centred approach to developing AI, reflecting on the message of Pope Leo XIV’s ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ published last month. Blueprint Trust’s COO, Soulla Kyriacou, argues that businesses that navigate AI successfully are likely to be those that deploy the technology with intentionality, with the goals of enhancing human contribution, building trust and creating sustainable, long-term value.
Bates Wells’ Thérèse Rankin has set out key points on the government’s consultation on upcoming changes to zero and low hours contracts, which is a key social impact topic within the ‘gig economy’. Under the proposals, qualifying workers will be given certain rights, including the right to be offered guaranteed hours if they work regular hours and be given reasonable notice of shifts. The consultation is asking for views on the conditions that will need to be met in order for workers to qualify for these rights.
The Commercial Payments Bill has been presented to Parliament. The Bill adds to existing laws designed to prevent harm to smaller businesses through poor payment practices by larger entities. It includes a 60-day cap on payment terms for large businesses paying smaller suppliers and mandatory interest on late payments. The Bill would also give the Small Business Commissioner more power to investigate payment practices, adjudicate disputes, and take enforcement action against persistent late payers, including financial penalties.
The Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosure (TISFD) has released the first iteration of its global framework to strengthen how organisations assess and disclose people-related impacts, risks and opportunities (press release / summary). It reflects growing recognition that inequality and social factors are material to business performance, investment outcomes and economic stability. The framework aligns with leading disclosure standards (ISSB, GRI, ESRS) and existing climate and nature disclosure frameworks, such as the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), aiming to support more integrated reporting. Now open for consultation, the final framework is expected to be published in 2027.
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