Alongside his professional career, Charlie is also a long-standing trustee of two charities, the Stone Family Foundation and Impetus, both of which have a focus on helping disadvantaged young people in the UK.

Bridges Inclusive Growth is a private equity strategy dedicated to investing in growing, cash-generative businesses delivering positive, measurable social outcomes for vulnerable groups in the UK. Current investments include New Reflexions, which provides care, therapy and education for disadvantaged young people, and Alina Homecare, which provides high-quality homecare for the elderly.

Emma Thorne, Partner and Co-head of Inclusive Growth, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Charlie into the team. We have been looking to recruit an experienced private equity investor who is also deeply committed to our mission to achieve better outcomes for vulnerable people in the UK. Charlie fits the bill perfectly, and he is going to be a real asset to the team in the coming months and years.”

Charlie Edwards, Partner and Co-head of Inclusive Growth, said: “I have always believed that private equity investment is a powerful way to deliver positive social outcomes as well as attractive financial returns. So the opportunity to join a pioneering impact investment platform like Bridges – and its clearly differentiated Inclusive Growth strategy in particular – was very compelling. I’m looking forward to working with our existing portfolio, and identifying future opportunities to invest in highly impactful UK businesses across a range of sectors.”

The team – which will be called Bridges Climate Transition Partners – will continue to manage the existing Climate Growth Partners fund, which has already made 11 investments. HSBC AM will remain a limited partner and maintain its existing capital commitment in the fund, and also intends to be an anchor investor in a successor fund, to be established and managed by Bridges in due course.

As part of the Bridges platform, the team will continue to back scalable, commercially proven European and North American technology companies, with a focus on areas like energy transition, sustainable manufacturing and climate resilience. The team will also benefit from the support of Bridges’ in-house sustainability, impact and value creation specialists.

Michele Giddens, CEO and Co-Founder of Bridges Fund Management, said:
“We’re thrilled to welcome Christophe, Mike and their outstanding team into the Bridges family. Their expertise and passion for solutions that are accelerating the transition to a more sustainable economy align perfectly with our mission. We firmly believe that investing in innovative climate technologies is one of the most powerful ways to achieve positive impact at scale, and we’re delighted to be spinning in this proven, expert team to spearhead our effort.”

Christophe Defert, Head of Bridges Climate Transition Partners, added:
“Climate technologies – powered by advances in AI and material science – are driving an energy and industrial transformation. We back exceptional founders whose unique and scalable businesses will be critical to the transition to a more sustainable and resilient economy.  Joining Bridges is a natural next step: it allows us to keep building on the strong foundations and networks we’ve developed over the last decade, with the support of HSBC. Bridges’ entrepreneurial spirit, impact expertise and specialist support will complement this perfectly. Together, we believe we can scale this platform to deliver great outcomes for our investors, communities, and the planet.”

Joanna Munro, CEO Alternatives at HSBC Asset Management, added:
“Christophe, Mike and team have built a strong platform with a differentiated approach and a solid foundation for growth. Our ongoing relationship with Bridges will support the scaling of this strategy, while continuing to serve the interests of existing investors.”

Alina is a portfolio company of Bridges’ Inclusive Growth, part of Bridges’ private equity strategy. This strategic appointment comes as Alina continues to expand its footprint and enhance its service delivery across the health and social care sector.

David Hill, Chair of Alina Homecare, said:
“I’m delighted to be joining Alina at such an important moment in the company’s development. The team’s unwavering commitment to delivering quality of care and sustainable growth is inspiring, and I look forward to working closely with James and the Board to further the ‘Alina Difference’ and address the increasing need for high-quality care at home.”

James Deeley, CEO of Alina Homecare, said:
“We are delighted to welcome David to the team during this exciting phase of our journey. His deep knowledge of multi-site consumer-focused businesses and his track record of delivering impact in fast-paced environments will be invaluable as we continue to scale our operations and provide exceptional care to our clients.”

Emma Thorne, Partner & Head of Inclusive Growth at Bridges, added:
“Alina Homecare plays an essential role in enabling older adults across the UK to live independently at home, with a strong focus on quality of care that is rooted in exceptional staff training and engagement. David’s experience of working with private equity-backed growth companies will be hugely additive to Alina in this next phase of its development, and we look forward to working with him, James and the Alina team.”

Bridges and Alina Homecare would also like to express their sincere thanks to Alina co-founder Fergus Kee, who is stepping down as Chair after playing a central role in Alina’s growth and development over the last twelve years.

This will be challenging, to say the least. Britain has some of the oldest, most inefficient housing stock in the developed world. And building the millions of new homes needed to tackle the housing crisis will only add to the sector’s carbon footprint.

The good news is that domestic emissions have actually been falling consistently over the last two decades, thanks to improved insulation, grid decarbonisation and warmer weather. Technologies like air source heat pumps and rooftop solar may not have had the hoped-for impact yet, but they can still play an important role in reducing emissions – as can new AI-powered developments in renewables and grid efficiency. Using these technologies to retrofit the UK’s leaky old homes would make a huge difference.

Equally, new homes are much more efficient operationally – and thanks to AI tools that also make building design and construction more efficient, coupled with advances in materials technology, we should see the embodied carbon associated with new-builds fall over time.

Critically, this is not just an environmental issue. Making our homes more energy-efficient also makes them cheaper to run, future-proofed against new regulation and better protected against climate change-related risks. That makes them more attractive to future buyers. So lower-carbon housing is not just an ecological (or even social) imperative: it’s an opportunity to create long-term economic value.

Bridges first invested in Alina in 2014, via an earlier private equity fund. This new investment – which follows an advisor-led competitive sale process – comes via its dedicated Inclusive Growth private equity strategy, which focuses on growth businesses that are delivering positive outcomes for vulnerable people in the UK.

Between 2024 and 2040, the UK’s elderly population is set to increase by about 2% per annum; by 2040, there will be 1m more people aged 80-85 than there are today. Coupled with the rise in chronic health conditions and increasing pressures on the primary care system, this creates an ever-growing need for high-quality care in the home that allows older people to continue living independently.

Alina has become a market leader in this sector, delivering 1.1m hours of care to over 1,300 people across the South of England last year. It has a strong focus on quality provision: 100% of its assessed branches are rated Good or Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, and it enjoys 99% service user satisfaction. The key enabler of this is its highly engaged and motivated workforce. Alina employs 100% of its carers and has a strong employee value proposition, particularly in terms of training, progression and pay. As a result, it has employee satisfaction of 98% and an Indeed rating of 4.2, both well ahead of the industry average. This helps it to recruit and retain high-quality carers, and support them to deliver the best possible care for service users.

Bridges is backing Alina’s existing management team, led by CEO James Deeley, who are re-investing alongside Bridges and will continue to lead the business. Emma Thorne, Partner and Head of Inclusive Growth at Bridges, and Tom Street, Investment Director for Inclusive Growth, will join the Alina board. With support from Bridges’ specialist impact value creation team, they will work closely with the business to support organic growth, further build out the senior team, and deepen its focus on quality outcomes for vulnerable older people.

Emma Thorne, Partner and Head of Bridges Inclusive Growth, said:

“Alina’s focus on providing quality employment for carers – enabling better care outcomes for vulnerable people – makes it a great fit for our Inclusive Growth strategy. As our elderly population grows, the need for this kind of high-quality care in the home is increasing steadily. We think Alina is perfectly placed to help address this unmet need in the coming years.”

James Deeley, CEO of Alina Homecare, said:

“Bridges have been a great partner for Alina over the years, and we are delighted to be partnering with the Inclusive Growth team for the next phase of our growth journey. It will allow us to maintain our emphasis on quality of care and quality of employment – which in turn help us to attract new clients and support the continued commercial growth of the business. We look forward to achieving further growth and impact in the coming years.”

The sell-side was advised by KPMG and Pinsent Masons; Bridges Inclusive Growth was advised by Grant Thornton, Addleshaw Goddard and Deloitte (tax structuring).  Due diligence providers included LEK (Commercial) BDO (financial), Global Counsel (Policy) and Palladium (digital).

The scheme comprises 135,000 sq.ft. of low-carbon logistics units on a six-acre brownfield site in Southampton.

Nursling 135 is rated EPC A+, BREEAM Outstanding and has zero operational carbon, with photovoltaic panels providing over 100% of the site’s energy needs, 10 electric vehicle charging points on site and rainwater harvesting technology contributing to water efficiency 50% above the BREEAM baseline.

Henry Pepper, Partner at Bridges Fund Management, said: “This EPC A+, zero operational carbon development is a great example of Bridges’ ongoing commitment to developing highly sustainable industrial buildings, which are increasingly attractive to a range of occupiers and investors looking to reduce operating costs and meet their own net zero goals.

“Our partnership with Graftongate has allowed us to regenerate this underused brownfield site and create a development that will support local employment growth.”

Alex Thomason, Director at Graftongate, added: “This deal reflects strong investor demand for well-located logistics space and demonstrates how sustainable development can deliver both environmental impact and commercial value.

“We’re proud to have delivered a high-quality building in partnership with Bridges.”

But the sheer scale and shape of the challenge can sometimes be hard to grasp. This is largely because a superficially simple problem – having enough quality homes for everyone to live in – has now morphed into a complex range of interlinked problems, which affect different people in different ways at different times.

In this paper, we try to provide a brief snapshot of the extent of UK’s housing challenge, with the help of 15 charts, covering:

• The gap between housing supply and demand

• The impact this has had on affordability and accessibility 

• Why this is a quality problem, not just a quantity problem

• Some of the key barriers to housebuilding

Situated in the Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area at the heart of Ealing’s vibrant and well-connected commercial and retail zone, the site will be transformed into new co-living homes plus shared amenity and ground floor retail.

This acquisition adds to HUB and Bridges’ growing pipeline of co-living projects, including Cornerstone and Assemblies in the City of London, Yardhouse in White City and Pines Way in Bath.

Currently a backland car park fronted by commercial units, the consented scheme will give the site a renewed purpose and bring it back into use. Designed to deliver high-quality homes whilst enhancing community integration with active street frontage, the development will also include a diverse range of internal and external communal spaces.

In line with HUB and Bridges’ commitment to creating homes that foster community cohesion, residents will benefit from shared amenities such as a communal kitchen, gym, cinema, co-working space, and sunken courtyards with biodiverse planting. The scheme also dedicates a generous portion of the site to public use, encouraging movement through the development.

Sustainability is at the core of the Sandringham Mews development.. The scheme is targeting a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating, with the potential to achieve ‘Outstanding’, exceeding current environmental planning requirements set by The London Plan and Ealing Council. In addition to being within walking distance of Ealing Broadway station, active travel will be supported with ample secure cycle storage.

Miles Keeley, Head of Acquisitions at HUB, commented: “Sandringham Mews marks another exciting acquisition for HUB and Bridges. Under consented plans, the scheme has enormous potential to reactivate this pocket of Ealing, complementing its existing commercial and retail spaces with high-quality homes that offer residents community, connectivity and an excellent lifestyle. This scheme continues HUB’s mission to transform underutilised and well-connected urban sites into living-led developments that enhance the area while meeting market demand for homes. It is an excellent example of co-living shaping sustainable and enriched neighbourhoods for the future.”

Simon Ringer, Head of Property Funds at Bridges, commented: “Co-living is an important part of the answer to the housing crisis in our major cities. With this Sandringham Mews development, we are taking an under-used site, in an area where there is a clear under-supply of housing, and transforming it into more than 300 sustainable homes – while also creating an asset that benefits the local community through new outdoor and retail space. We’re excited to see it come to life in the next few years.”

Tom joins Bridges from Agathos, where he invested in UK SMEs operating across the education, healthcare and business service sectors. He began his career at DC Advisory, advising UK SMEs.

Emma Thorne, Head of Bridges Inclusive Growth, said:
“We’re delighted to welcome Tom to Bridges. He has a strong track record of helping businesses with impact at their core to achieve sustainable, fast-paced growth. We’re looking forward to drawing on this experience – and his strong sector knowledge – as we look to build out our Inclusive Growth strategy and achieve better outcomes in areas like physical health, mental health and economic inclusion.”

Tom Street, Investment Director for Bridges Inclusive Growth, said:
“I’ve always been passionate about working closely with exceptional founders and management teams to build businesses that drive positive change. Bridges is a true pioneer in impact investing, and the Inclusive Growth Fund is leaning into areas of the UK economy that are underserved by private capital. I’m excited about the opportunity to work with businesses making a positive impact, helping them navigate the challenges of rapid growth so they can improve the lives of more vulnerable people across the UK.”

Alina Disability Support provides quality care and support for children and adults with learning disabilities and other complex care needs in their own home. It operates 11 branches across the South of England, delivering about 24,000 hours of care per week. It has also embraced innovation, using technology to enhance care delivery and relieve its teams from administrative tasks, allowing them to spend more time delivering great outcomes for those they support.

Alina’s people-centred culture – which includes rewards programmes, training opportunities (through the Alina Homecare Academy) and zero agency usage – is reflected in market-leading retention and satisfaction rates; while its focus on quality and delivering better care outcomes is evidenced by a Service User Satisfaction rating of 98% in its latest annual survey.

The Alina Group retains the Alina Homecare division, which is a growing provider of high-quality homecare and live-in services to privately funded customers across the South of England. The business operates from its network of 45 branches.

James Deeley, co-founder and CEO of Alina Homecare, said:

“From a small operation in Poole & Bournemouth, we have successfully grown Alina Disability Support into a leading provider of high-quality care and support across the South of England. Joining Swanton will allow the business to achieve its full potential as part of a national group. Our steadfast focus on quality and the right people culture are closely aligned to Swanton’s approach and I wish Kate Ford and the wider Disability Support management team every success for the future. The Alina Group will continue to focus on providing high quality privately funded homecare and live-in services from our growing network of 45 branches.”

Antony Ross, senior advisor and chair of Bridges Inclusive Growth Fund, said:

“Despite the difficult operating environment for care providers over the last five years, Alina has shown an unwavering commitment to building a high-quality team and delivering best-in-class care to the people it supports. That’s why it has been able to build such strong relationships with Local Authorities and CCGs, enabling the team to support more people with complex care needs. We are really proud of what Alina Disability Support has achieved to date, and we have no doubt it will continue to go from strength to strength as part of the Swanton group.”

This is the fifth exit from the Bridges private equity funds in 2024. Previous realisations include: AgilityEco, a pioneering home decarbonisation platform that supports people in fuel poverty: Vegetarian express, which supplies plant-based ingredients and inspiration to chefs across the UK; Viva Gym, the largest low-cost fitness group in the Iberian region; and Nexgen (formerly Just Ask), a facilities management business that works primarily with Housing Associations.

The Alina Group was advised by KPMG Corporate Finance, led by Tony Ball, and Pinsents, led by Jo Ellis and Ben Elliott.

Bridges invested in Just Ask – a family-run ESG-driven facilities management business that worked primarily with Housing Associations – in 2017. In the subsequent years, Bridges worked with the founders to support their transition out of the day-to-day business, building a high-calibre new management team – led by CEO Mark Little, CFO Gordon Peattie and chair Jon Andrew – to lead the business through its next chapter of growth.

Alongside management, Bridges also spearheaded five bolt-on acquisitions that have collectively transformed the scale and scope of the business, extending its core sectors beyond Social Housing into Education, Healthcare and Property Management. The integrated business, which was renamed the Nexgen Group in early 2023, is now one of the few scaled facilities management platforms in the UK and remains the market leader in its core Social Housing market.

Supported by Bridges’ specialist value creation team, Nexgen has now fully integrated the acquisitions, creating a resilient, tech-enabled operational platform – including IT, Finance and HR – to support further growth. This has significantly improved the business’s efficiency, helping it to reduce carbon emissions through route optimisation and service a broader range of clients more effectively. This has enabled the enlarged Nexgen Group to enjoy strong organic growth since the acquisitions.

When Bridges invested in Just Ask, the business employed 450 people and was generating about £10m of revenue. Nexgen Group is now generating revenue of about £90m, with around 3,500 employees.

The business has retained its focus on ESG and social value, which continues to be an important differentiator when bidding for public sector and social housing contracts. Nexgen is committed to improving local communities, both through a relentless focus on quality service provision, and by providing employment opportunities for local people. Thanks to its proactive recruitment efforts, about a third of delivery staff are recruited from the social housing associations in which it operates. It is also focused on supporting people out of long-term unemployment (11% of staff fall into this category) and improving skills, notably through its in-house training academy. Volunteering is actively encouraged: staff have now pledged over 2,000 hours of their time to support local and community causes. This year, Nexgen is expecting to deliver about £2m of social value to its clients (as measured by the Social Value TOM system).

The exit is Bridges’ fourth in the last seven months, following sales of home decarbonisation delivery platform AgilityEco, specialist plant-based ingredients supplier Vegetarian Express, and Iberian low-cost fitness operator VivaGym.

James Hurrell, Partner at Bridges, said,

“Nexgen is a great example of three key elements of Bridges’ investment strategy. First, we identified a high-quality, impact-driven provider whose focus on ESG and social value would help them become a leader in their market. Second, we were able to support the founders to transition, while building an outstanding senior leadership team. And third, our value creation team has been able to work closely with management to deliver growth, both by implementing significant operational improvements, and by identifying complementary acquisitions that have transformed the breadth and scale of the business. We are proud of the progress Nexgen has made during our partnership, and are confident that Bidvest Noonan is the right partner to enable the business to continue its growth trajectory.”

Mark Little, CEO of Nexgen Group, said:

“Bridges were the perfect investment partner for Just Ask, because they understood the value that its ESG focus would bring, while also providing hands-on commercial input and support. Over the years, the Bridges team have played a vital role in helping drive through transformative acquisitions, significantly enhance our operating capacity, and scale our impact. We’re very grateful for their partnership and support over the last seven years.

“Looking forward, I am confident that Bidvest Noonan will be an excellent partner to support our long-term growth plans. They recognise that Nexgen is a best-in-class operator in an attractive niche, and we look forward to drawing on their support to further enhancing our offer to clients in the coming years.”

Declan Doyle, CEO of Bidvest Noonan, said:

“We are very impressed with the team at Nexgen Group. They have built a thriving business with a very bright and exciting future. Their strong commitment to their colleagues, customers and communities has been key to their success. We look forward to supporting them and contributing to their continued growth and success.”

Co-founder Michele Giddens will transition from co-CEO to CEO of Bridges in July. With this expanded remit, Michele will oversee all investment activity across the Bridges platform of funds, as well as strategy, operations, people and all other aspects of the business.

Fellow co-founder Philip Newborough, who has been CEO of the business for the past 22 years – serving as co-CEO alongside Michele for the last 5 years – is moving to the role of Executive Chair.

Christophe Evain, the former chairman and CEO of Intermediate Capital Group, who has been Bridges’ Non-Executive Chair since 2020, will continue as a Non-Executive Director, working alongside Philip and the rest of the board to support Bridges’ growth.

As part of this transition, Bridges has also expanded its Executive Committee to include three of its existing partners: Maggie Loo, Client & Strategy Development, Henry Jones, Head of Value Creation, and Mila Lukic, Head of Bridges Outcomes Partnerships.

Michele and Philip co-founded Bridges in 2002 with the support of Apax Partners, 3i and Doughty Hanson. Bridges was an early pioneer in sustainable and impact investment in private markets. and has played a central role in building this field. The firm invests exclusively in the transition to a more sustainable and inclusive economy across three key private fund verticals: real estate, private equity and outcomes partnerships.

Michele Giddens, CEO of Bridges Fund Management, said:
“I am delighted to be taking on the full CEO responsibilities ahead of this exciting next chapter of Bridges’ growth.

“For many years, sustainable and impact investing was seen as a marginal niche; now it’s one of the most important and fastest-growing areas of the investment world. Climate change and inequality are the two biggest challenges of our time, and we urgently need to ramp up our efforts to tackle them. We believe that this careful management transition – which we have been working towards internally for some time now – will provide Bridges with the continuity, the rich experience and the blend of leadership skills required to benefit from the growth of our market over the next decade, and accelerate our ability to invest in a more sustainable and inclusive future.”

“I’m also hugely grateful that I will still be able to rely on Philip’s support and advice. He has made an extraordinary contribution to the growth of both Bridges and the broader impact investing market over the last two decades, and I have no doubt he will continue to draw on this wealth of experience and expertise to offer invaluable insight and wisdom to Bridges in his new role.”

Philip Newborough, chair of Bridges, said:
“It has been my greatest privilege to lead Bridges since we founded the firm 22 years ago. I am proud of what Bridges has achieved so far as a pioneer in impact investment, helping to build this important market. I am delighted that Michele is stepping into the CEO role: there is no one better to lead the firm through its next phase of growth. There is much to be done to accelerate the firm’s ability to invest in and help create a more sustainable and inclusive economy, and I look forward to supporting Michele and our talented team to achieve that.”

Christophe Evain, non-executive director of Bridges, said:
“Since joining the Bridges team in 2020, it has been a real pleasure to work alongside Michele and Philip, and to see first-hand the outstanding team they have assembled. I have no doubt that Michele will be an exceptional CEO in her own right, and I am excited to see the rest of the team step up as Philip moves into the Chair role. I look forward to continuing to contribute to the future success of the firm as an active member of the Board.”