Acting together for impact
Our place-based impact investing programme focuses on bringing together a range of actors including the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs), fund managers, pension consultants, local authorities, and communities to encourage investment into cities, towns, and regions across the UK.
We bring potential investors and communities together to create place-specific investment opportunities:
- Partnering with local authorities – In our first pilot project, we partnered with Wakefield Council in West Yorkshire to identify local projects with the potential to attract private investment. We then helped them to match with investors looking for place-based investment opportunities.
- Community Development Finance Institutions – CDFIs are local, non-bank lenders serving people, businesses and social enterprises that cannot get the finance they need from banks. We help CDFIs take on more institutional investment that can be channelled into local enterprises.
- A Place Coalition – We set up a Place Coalition to bring together voices from across the investment world, the social sector, local authorities, and other stakeholders. Through the Coalition, members can share their expertise on place-based impact investing and support, champion, and challenge the Institute’s work in this area.
- Community Engagement Guide – To ensure local people are integral to the investment decision-making process, we are produced a guide for investors on how to best engage with communities when looking to invest in places across the UK.
- Advocacy – We continue to promote place-based impact investing among policymakers and regulators to raise awareness of its potential to address many social challenges and build better futures in communities across the UK.
Place Coalition
The Institute’s Place Coalitions bring together place leaders, investors, intermediaries and government to accelerate the growth of place-based impact investment across the UK.
Convened twice a year in different regions across the UK, each gathering connects national momentum with local leadership and opportunity.
At a time of increasing policy momentum and public sector commitment, the Coalitions provide a platform to translate ambition into action. They enable those at the forefront of delivering inclusive local growth to share learning, explore opportunities and address the barriers to deploying impact capital in places.
Through a mix of discussion, collaborative sessions and insight-sharing, these gatherings help to build the partnerships, capacity and infrastructure needed to unlock place-based investment and deliver inclusive, long-term growth.
The next Place Coalition is coming in Autumn 2026 and details will be announced this August. Please contact Ipsa Agnani to register your interest and be the first to hear more.
Project lead
Senior Programme Manager, Place-based impact investing
