Impact investing with Gemma Bourne, Managing Director of Better Society Capital (formerly Big Society Capital)

Send us a textKia Commodore founded financial education platform Pennies to Pounds at the age of 21, when she realised there was a major gap in her own knowledge: money matters.She has since grown a significant social following and worked with the likes of Barclays, Natwest, Santander and Legal and General, the BBC and the Financial Times on her mission to demystify personal finance. So she was the perfect candidate to discuss the things you need to know but were afraid to ask about retirement planning and pensions, as part of our series on ‘How to make the most of your money’ sponsored by Cohort Invest.We covered topics including:Why you can’t just rely on the state pension and auto enrollmentHow to take control of your financial future and get start planning for your retirementHow to avoid common mistakes, and why now is the time to start thinking about pensions, if you haven’t already The tax benefits of diverting income to your pensionDe-mystifying the jargon, from triple lock to SIPPsMy personal favourite: FIRE, and how to be part of this global movement.Sponsor website: https://cohortinvest.co.uk/Guest website: https://www.penniestopounds.co.uk/Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kia-commodore-34205a11a/Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

Send us a textAnn-Marie Atkins is a Managing Partner and award-winning Financial Planner at Evelyn Partners. She came on the podcast as part of our series on ‘How to make the most of your money’ sponsored by Cohort Invest, to discuss the things you need to know but were afraid to ask about inheritance.We covered topics including:What exemptions are available for Inheritance TaxTrusts, Family Investment Companies and other structures which mean you don’t need to pay Inheritance TaxWhen should you start thinking about your Will, and what happens if you don’tTips and tricks for how to have awkward conversations, to avoid stress and drama laterHow to protect and pass on wealth under a Labour government Sponsor website: https://cohortinvest.co.uk/ Guest website: https://www.evelyn.com/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annmariebanks/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

Send us a textI spoke to Allen Chilten, Global Head of Capital Formation at the £750bn Schroders Capital, previously Head of Funds at Patrizia.In this episode we covered topics like: What kind of returns, and what magnitude do investors expect from Living?How do returns from different UK Living strategies compare with one another, and the returns available from other geographies? What are the factors that investors consider significant? What makes a best-in-class ‘living’ platform, which others can learn from?Guest website: https://www.schroderscapital.com/en/global/professional/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-chilten-48ab596/Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

Send us a textI chatted with Grainne Gilmore, Director of Research & Insights at real assets advisory firm Cluttons about digital connectivity, one of their key expertise areas.We covered:What digital connectivity actually is, from phone masts to broadband capacity.Why capacity and speed are so important, for example playing a critical role in urgent healthcare delivery, facilitating the achievement of corporate ESG targets through IOT devices, or enabling families to connect with their communities.What we need to do in order to remain internationally competitive, including planning system capacity upgrades and public information campaigns. Grainne shared examples of what works in local communities, and I shared my thoughts on how the definition of infrastructure needs to change to align with what the UK really needs in the years to 2050.Guest website: https://www.cluttons.com/Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grainnegilmore/Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

Send us a textI chatted with Elizabeth Froude, Group Chief Executive of Platform Housing Group, one of the largest Housing Associations in the Midlands with 49,000 homes as part of a collaboration with UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum).We talked about topics including:How to attract institutional capital to decarbonise existing social housing stock when the substantial upfront capital required doesn’t always result in higher rents (e.g. where rents are capped)What is the benefit to the exchequer of spending on social housingHow is Social Housing being used to catalyse supply chains for retrofitGuest website: https://www.platformhg.com/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-froude-43b40262/Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

Send us a textI spoke to Gemma Bourne, Managing Director at Better Society Capital (formerly Big Society Capital) as part of a collaboration with UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum).We talked about topics including:Where the UK’s leading social impact investor gets its capital from, including dormant bank accounts What other organisations can learn from 10 years of impact investing, including how to avoid ‘impact blinkers’ that distract from thorough due diligenceWhat a career in impact investing involves, career pathways and advice on how to shift into a career with impact, from any starting point. Guest website: https://bettersocietycapital.com/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemma-bourne-69808544/Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

Send us a textI chatted to Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Houseful which is the Business to Business part of Zoopla. We covered:Rent growth - at its lowest for 30 monthsThe supply-demand imbalance - which is still over 2 x pre-pandemic levels What investor opportunities exist in the current market - notably existing homes What the election means for the housing and rental marketsGuest website: https://houseful.co.uk/Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-donnell/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

Send us a textI chatted to Jamie Broderick, Deputy Chair of the non-profit Impact Investing Institute about place-based impact investing - as part of a collaboration with UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum).We covered:What actually is impact investing, and what is place-based impact investing?Who is still investing in an environment of higher interest rates, and what do they want?Blended finance and the use of public funding to crowd in private capitalNet Zero Neighbourhoods and the importance of community for both commercial viability and practical success of retrofit.Guest website: https://www.impactinvest.org.uk/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiebroderick1/Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

Send us a textI caught up with my friend Jon Daley, who I (not very) jokingly refer to as ‘the Martin Lewis of social and sustainable housing’ because he knows so much about these socially critical topics. He’s also Head of Sustainability at Asset Manager G2M.For context, Jon and I agree on a lot of things, including that the value of ideas shared increases exponentially, and that collective effort beyond building design is essential for achieving the environmental and social outcomes needed in UK housing pre-2050.Topics we covered on the pod included: What is needed in order to upgrade the huge proportion (80%) of UK homes that we use in 2050 which already exist Navigating key regulatory changes, standards and bodies from Rental Reform to COP to the UK Green Finance Strategy to ISSB Navigating funding opportunities such as ECO and the Social Housing Decarbonisation FundGuest LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondaley88/⁠⁠Guest website: https://g2mgroup.co.uk/Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

Send us a textIf you work in sustainable investing, you probably already know the ‘Bridges Spectrum of Capital’. I discovered and loved it when I was researching my book on Sustainable Residential Investing, so I was especially excited to chat with Michele Giddens OBE, Co-CEO of Bridges Fund Management, which she Co-Founded alongside Philip Newborough and Sir Ronald Cohen - who gets described as "the father of British venture capital".Michele has 30 years experience in sustainable investing and international development finance, from chairing the Community Development Finance Association, the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing, and a Global Working Group on Policy for the G7 Impact Investment Taskforce to running pioneer Bridges Fund Management. So she is the perfect guest to talk about sustainable investing, pioneering new strategies and making financial and social returns from retrofit.We covered: The thesis behind Bridges and the Spectrum of Capital which ‘went a bit viral’ ! How to pioneer: what we can learn from prolific pioneers about the process of bringing innovative ideas to market, for example carbon optioneering How to create attractive financial returns alongside social and environmental impacts in Article 9 funds Example investments such as retrofitting an old vinyl factory with cross-laminated timber to the material health benefits for residents from assisted living schemes Guest website: https://www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-giddens-ab6b63145/Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/