Three Welsh social enterprises were joint winners of the Social Investment Deal of the Year award at the UK Social Enterprise Awards.
The awards recognise excellence and innovation in UK’s growing social enterprise sector across 15 categories, in a gala ceremony hosted by national sector body Social Enterprise UK at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s South Bank.
Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) based in Aberystwyth, Community Impact Initiative from Bridgend, and Tai Heulwen CIC in Merthyr Tydfil, faced stiff competition from hundreds of entries to take home the award.
Despite having the expertise and local insight to deliver high-quality care, Tai Heulwen lacked the capital and financial resilience to purchase a property when aiming to build and operate a new children’s home in Merthyr Tydfil.
WCVA introduced Tai Heulwen to The Community Impact Initiative CIC (CII), which specialises in buying and renovating houses for community use. WCVA also provided loans to CII to buy and improve the house, and to Tai Heulwen to cover early costs for planning and approvals. The children’s home will enable vulnerable children to remain close to their families and communities, avoiding the disruption of being placed far from their support network
Alun Jones, Head of Social Investment at WCVA, said:
“As a social lender every so often things come across your desk and you think ‘we can't do that, but we've got to do that' and this was one of those. It's all about the people and these were people we needed to back. It's great to win.”
Social enterprises are businesses that trade for a social or environmental purpose. There are more than 100,000 social enterprises in the UK, contributing around 3.4% of national GDP while tackling some of the biggest challenges facing people and planet.
Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK, said:
“Every year brings its challenges, but 2025 saw a difficult economic trading environment alongside a sometimes unsettling national conversation on what it means to be British that dominated the political landscape.
“It was therefore truly heartening to celebrate businesses built on care and compassion that support the most vulnerable members of our communities, representing Britain at its best. The spirit of togetherness demonstrated by all the nominated social enterprises was the foundation for a fantastic night of well-deserved celebration.
“Congratulations to all of the winners and to Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), Community Impact Initiative from Bridgend, and Tai Heulwen CIC for their award.”
