Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking at Allia’s Social Impact Summit – a brilliant gathering of local businesses, charities, and community groups, all coming together with a shared goal: to drive positive change in our city.
Social impact is the idea of businesses working not just to deliver profit, but to benefit people, locally or further afield – be that through their products and services directly, or through other work.
Allia has been working in this space for 25 years, supporting enterprises that make a real difference. Their work spans from helping homeless people into stable housing with their Future Homes Project to supporting older residents through innovative Agetech initiatives. They understand that economic growth and social impact go hand in hand – something we should all be championing.
One of the key themes of the summit was the idea of making Peterborough a true ‘social impact city’. This means ensuring that business success isn’t just measured in profits, but also in the positive contributions made to the local community and to society more broadly. Philanthropy and corporate responsibility should be at the heart of our economic growth, not an afterthought.
That’s why events like the Social Impact Summit matter. They create the networks and momentum needed to make a real difference. I’ve already seen this firsthand in Peterborough. Since my election, I’ve met businesses doing incredible work, from Generation Phoenix, which turns leather waste into recycled products, to Coloplast, which is innovating in medical technology to improve people’s quality of life. I was particularly struck by Genesis Tech, a telecoms company that recently moved its head office here. One of the first things they wanted to talk about when I visited them was corporate social responsibility and how they could make a meaningful contribution to Peterborough.
This is the kind of ambition we need to foster. Businesses and charities working together, with the support of government, can unlock huge opportunities for social impact. The government is already taking steps, whether through continued funding of Gift Aid, various funds to support charities and social enterprises, or distributing an additional £350 million by 2028 to voluntary, community and social enterprises through the Dormant Assets Scheme which allows unclaimed money to be used for public good. But we need to go further.
Peterborough has enormous potential. We are a city built on enterprise, with the drive and innovation to lead the way in social impact. If we work together – businesses, charities, government, and community groups – we can create lasting change. Let’s seize this opportunity to make Peterborough a model for the rest of the country, where economic success and social good go hand in hand.
If you know of a local organisation that’s making a real difference in Peterborough, I’d love to visit and help showcase their work. Let’s celebrate those who are leading the way – and encourage even more people to get involved in shaping a better future for our communities.