- Formed in 2020 to support socially trading organisations (STOs)
- Backed by £5.5m Combined Authority investment
- Generated £42.7m in economic and social value since 2020
- Nearly 300 jobs created – including 74 in 2025 alone
- Creating flexible, good-quality jobs in communities that need them most
- Mayor: ‘The real success is measured in the lives being changed’
Nearly 300 jobs have been created and £19.4m of investment secured by a Combined Authority-backed initiative set up to power Liverpool City Region’s social economy.
Formed in 2020 with £5.5m from the Combined Authority and £1m from Power to Change, Kindred has invested £3m in the City Region’s social economy, supporting 69 socially trading organisations (STOs).
The investments have generated £42.7m in economic and social value, helping STOs create jobs, attract further investment and strengthen local economies across the City Region.
A new impact report reveals Kindred-backed STOs created 74 new full-time equivalent jobs in 2025 alone, bringing the total over six years to almost 300.
STOs combine commercial activity with social purpose and Kindred’s 2025 Impact Report, Building the Future Economy, demonstrates the huge impact that backing STOs can have across Liverpool City Region.
The report highlights how STOs act as catalysts for growth, attracting follow-on investment and creating flexible, good-quality jobs in the communities that need them most. These opportunities provide an important pathway back into employment for people facing barriers to work, while helping to build stronger and more resilient local economies.
Kindred has supported organisations that are delivering impact in areas including health and wellbeing, community and belonging, and place and biodiversity. Collectively, Kindred-backed organisations have reached 483,559 people through their work.
Kindred Director Jen Van der Merwe and Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said:
“When this initiative was first muted, I was told it would be a bold move to support it. I did, and that support has paid dividends.
“For too long, success has been judged by what happens in boardrooms rather than what happens in our communities. Kindred is proving there’s another way. With our financial backing, they’re helping to create good local jobs, bringing investment into neighbourhoods and helping people build stronger, healthier communities.
“Nearly 300 jobs and almost £20 million of extra investment is a fantastic return, but the real success is measured in the lives being changed. That’s exactly the kind of economy we’re working to build across the Liverpool City Region.”
The report highlights:
- Since 2020, Kindred has made 74 investments in 69 socially trading organisations, investing £3m into Liverpool City Region’s social economy.
- Socially trading organisations have levered a further £19.4m in follow-on investment since 2021, including £3.05m in the last 12 months alone.
- The combined turnover of Kindred investees has reached £14m, up from £11.5m in 2024.
- Employment across investees has increased by 81% since 2020, supporting 405.5 full-time equivalent roles.
- In 2025 alone, investees created 74.1 new full-time equivalent jobs, bringing the total created over six years to almost 300.
- 60% of investees are demonstrating improved business practice, including reaching new markets, adopting new technologies and securing appropriate forms of finance.
- Collectively, Kindred-supported organisations have reached 483,559 people through their work.
Investment continues to reach organisations that have historically faced barriers to funding. In 2025, 37% of investment by value was directed to Black and ethnically minoritised-led STOs, exceeding Kindred’s target of 25%, while 49% of investment went to women-led organisations.
Black and ethnically minoritised organisations supported by Kindred are growing both turnover and employment by an average of 45% year on year.
Examples of the impact being delivered across Liverpool City Region include community-led regeneration activity in Runcorn, initiatives tackling isolation and building connections in Knowsley, and support for cultural organisations seeking long-term premises in Birkenhead.
Jen Van der Merwe, Executive Director of Kindred, said:
“Liverpool City Region is quietly building one of the UK’s most ambitious experiments in inclusive growth. Social economy jobs matter: they’re good, secure roles created in the communities that need them most. And where the social economy takes root, other investment tends to follow – because it’s catalytic by nature.
“That’s what Kindred exists to unlock: by backing individual organisations and connecting them to each other and to wider partners, we strengthen an ecosystem that’s already proving what’s possible.”
The Combined Authority, Kindred and six other partners are now working together as a Social Impact Partnership to scale the approach developed by Kindred. The LCR Social Investment Pathfinder aims to raise £50m to match the demand for investment and the potential for good growth that socially-trading organisations in the region have demonstrated is possible.
