Recurve Founder and Managing Director Sam Markey spoke at UKREiiF 2026 in Leeds, joining Danielle Aberg and Dr Daniel Fujiwara of Thrive (who generously provided the ticket), and Nicola Windsor of CCR Energy on a panel exploring what the wellbeing economy means for real estate and infrastructure investment.

The argument Sam put to the room acknowledged a paradox. The capital ready to back place-based wellbeing outcomes is abundant and growing: the UK pool of impact capital stands at around £106 billion, the global impact investing market reached $1.57 trillion in 2024, and the Local Government Pension Scheme has been asked to set an ambition of investing 5% of its assets in local areas — which, if realised across the scheme, would unlock between £16 and £20 billion for place-based pipelines. The capital resource is not what's holding this back.

What's scarce is human resource. Our research with Bloom for The State of Procurement Report 2026 found that bandwidth constraints on public sector teams are one of the most consistent brakes on new practice. The Partnering for Place report, which we co-authored with AchieveGood, showed that the same is true in impact investment. The teams who would need to identify, structure, and steward wellbeing-led investment opportunities are already stretched across statutory delivery. Knowing that patient capital exists is one thing; having the capacity and the confidence to engage with it on credible terms is another.

That's why Sam's practical call to the panel was deliberately narrow: don't try to deliver abstract 'wellbeing'. Pick one discrete, meaningful outcome that genuinely matters to your place and that you can baseline, track, and evidence — and build from there. The ambition can be large. The starting point should be specific.

For the full panel discussion — including Daniel Fujiwara's argument that the measurement infrastructure is already in place, and Nicola Windsor's frank account of where wellbeing sits in most infrastructure investment decisions — Thrive have published a detailed write-up: From GDP to Gross Wellbeing: What the Wellbeing Economy Means for Real Estate.

Ready to close the capacity gap?

We offer two products which address the capacity and confidence gap, aimed at local and regional place leaders and their anchor partners:

The Place-based Impact Investing Catalyst, delivered with the Impact Investing Institute, takes participants through a structured journey from a diagnostic of investment readiness to a pipeline of named opportunities and introductions to appropriate investors — building the institutional muscle to engage with impact capital on your own terms.
Find out more about the Catalyst →
The Impact for Places Leadership Academy, delivered with the Impact Economy Collective, is a national cohort-based programme equipping senior leaders in mayoral combined authorities, local authorities, and anchor institutions with the technical fluency, peer network, and practical skills to embrace a mobilisation mindset.
Find out more about the Academy →