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Stephen Timms MP

Social Enterprise Strategy Launch
Stephen Timms MP

Oxo Tower, London


Tuesday, July 23, 2002


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What we are looking for, then, with this strategy, is for the creativity and energy, which characterise our entrepreneurial private sector at its best to be focused as well on the big social challenges which face us. That is how we see the value of social enterprise. We want social enterprise to play an increasingly large role in contributing to some of the Government's key policy objectives:

  • Driving up productivity and competitiveness;

  • Promoting social inclusion and neighbourhood regeneration;

  • Developing new ways to deliver public services; and

  • Building social capital and active citizenship.

And so in the strategy we set out what we envisage doing to boost both the number and the strength of co-operatives and other mutual enterprises, local community enterprises and social enterprises of all kinds.

Let me just pick out the key elements of the strategy, under four headings.

First, finance and funding. It was no surprise that those were top of the list of concerns in our discussions with social enterprises. Many social enterprises are under capitalised and find it difficult to move away as they would like to from dependency on grants. I would highlight two measures featured in the strategy. First, we are delighted that the Bank of England has agreed to review the debt and equity finance available to social enterprises. We think that will be a very significant exercise. Where there are gaps or barriers that the Bank identifies, we will develop proposals on how to address them.

The strategy also explains how the Community Investment Tax Credit will encourage investment in social enterprises in disadvantaged areas. The legislation was in this year's Finance Bill, and what it will do in I think quite a powerful way is just tilt the playing field in favour of commercial viability for some social enterprises where the investment would otherwise look marginal or worse. We do want to build a new culture of enterprise so that, even in parts of the country where in the past people would not have expected to have a job at all, they will in the future have the confidence to set up an enterprise, and we see the new tax credit as an important step towards that aim.

The second area, which the strategy highlights, is on establishing the value of social enterprise. We do not at present have an accurate view of the extent of social enterprise in the UK, so we want to map it and quantify it properly for the first time. We also want to raise its profile, recognise and draw attention to achievements in the sector, for example by supporting awards and other measures to celebrate success. The strategy also proposes introducing a voluntary accreditation scheme for trusted social enterprises along the lines of the Investors in People scheme.

In the autumn I want to spend some time visiting social enterprises around the country, to see how things are going on the ground, to form an impression about the problems enterprises are facing and how far the strategy will be able to address them, and also, I hope, to help draw attention locally to the contribution which social enterprises are making in communities.

The strategy also focuses, thirdly, on steps to make social enterprises stronger businesses. We want in particular to ensure that social enterprises are able to benefit fully from the support, which is available to businesses of all kinds. We want to make sure that Business Link in every part of the country is geared up to support social enterprise - there are excellent examples where that is already the case, but there is more that can be done - and that other government support programmes like, for example, the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme, can be accessed by social enterprises and are in practice accessed by them too.

And, fourth, we believe that social enterprises can make a major contribution to the Government's key current objective of raising the quality of our public services. Leisure Trusts, on the model of Greenwich Leisure, are social enterprises, which already operate leisure centres for more than 60 local authorities around the country. The strategy aims both to promote a better understanding of the potential contribution of social enterprises among public sector procurers, and also to increase the expertise on public sector procurement among social enterprises, for example through development of a procurement toolkit.

To monitor the delivery of all of this we want to establish a consultation group with representatives from the social enterprise sector, and my Department will also chair an interdepartmental group of officials to build on the very high degree of interest and support there has been across Government in developing this strategy.

We are very grateful, as Patricia has said, to all those who have contributed to the development of this strategy. Thank you also for joining us this morning, and we are looking forward to working with everybody here to building a success story out of social enterprise in Britain.
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