Investing in social, environmental, health and economic impact
As long-term patient capital investors and partners, we are committed to driving positive change through the whole investment cycle.
We spoke to Melissa Lockett, Senior Investment Manager in our Social Impact Team, about her experience and our role in making purposeful investments.
Tell us about your background
"I joined Legal & General Capital (LGC) after completing a Master of Public Policy (MPP) at the University of Oxford. Prior to the MPP, I spent more than a decade in financial services, with advisory experience spanning corporate mergers and acquisitions, healthcare equity research, retail banking strategy, municipal financing, and real estate. Most recently, I was a Vice President at Citi Community Capital where I partnered with for-profit and non-profit real estate developers, governmental agencies, and financing firms to deliver affordable housing that benefited vulnerable populations across the US. These deals preserved 11,000+ affordable units and financed the new construction of 7,300+ mixed-income units, as well as ancillary commercial, community facility, parking, office, and health care space."
Why did you choose to work for LGC in the investing for impact team?
"I’m passionate about the role financial services can and must play in both strengthening communities and reducing carbon emissions. Investing for impact is all about making investments that are inclusive, rather than extractive, and aligning the right type of capital with the appropriate investment horizon. Having spent time in an advisory capacity or senior lender position for most of my career, I’m really excited to be on the development and investment side with a more collaborative and longer-term view on places and solutions."
What impact are you looking to make in this role?
"I’ve been in LGC now for 6 months and my role is to originate socially, environmentally, and economically impactful investments. The rising interest rate environment, cost of living crisis, and fiscally constrained local governments has made it more challenging for government alone to deliver on their ambitions. There is a huge and complementary opportunity for businesses to partner with government, increasing the pace and depth of our positive impact in society. I work with places and community groups to understand the local need for investment and their appetite for risk and return in order to match opportunities to L&G’s various portfolios.
The built environment is where we live out our lives, and has a direct impact on our health, happiness, and economic activity. I’m passionate about decarbonising the BE – from the physical structures to supply chain to partner ecosystems – and also improving the quality of places. My goal is to leverage LGC’s reputation and platform and partner with ambitious individuals, companies, and places who are innovating and tackling an unmet need or longstanding policy/market failure in how we deliver housing, clean technologies, and social benefits."
How would you describe LGC’s commitment to investing for impact?
"LGC “invests society’s capital, for society’s benefit” and I see that commitment to inclusive capitalism across the organisation every day. Whether it’s our housing team trying to increase affordable, sustainable housing, or our clean energy team who see the climate change challenge as an opportunity for investors and innovators to scale up new technologies and decarbonise homes, or our urban regeneration team who is working strategically with places to develop innovation clusters and bring new life to ageing assets. All of these direct investments create jobs and transform the places we live, work, and study."
Can you share some of the exciting things you’re working on?
"A few of the really exciting propositions in the hopper include working with our Clean Energy team and investee companies (like Sero and Kensa) on retrofit funding and delivery archetypes for social housing to address energy efficiency targets as well as reduce fuel poverty.
Increased demand for services is putting pressure on local government in areas like temporary accommodation; so, we’re trying to develop a model with the Affordable Housing team for institutional investment to fund temporary accommodation with local authorities.
Additionally, we’re supporting great relationships already in place in cities like Newcastle and Sheffield. In addition to place-based investments, I’ve teamed up with thought leaders across the organisation on policy ideas to more effectively incentivise and deliver multi-tenure housing and large-scale developments as well as renewable energy and national infrastructure."
Learn more about our commitment to investing for impact here