The UK government has committed itself to building a stronger social enterprise sector. In Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success, released last month by the Department of Trade and Industry, the government committed itself to a vision of "dynamic and sustainable social enterprise strengthening in an inclusive and growing economy".

In the UK, social enterprises are businesses which have primarily social objectives and whose surpluses are principally reinvested in the business or its community. They are mostly non-profit organisations or co-operatives. The Report contains numerous short case studies of successful social enterprises.

The government sees social enterprises as having a key role in driving up productivity and competitiveness, in contributing to socially inclusive wealth creation and in enabling individuals and communities to work together to regenerate their local neighbourhoods.

The document spells out the ways in which the government will create an enabling environment for social enterprise, including providing access to business support and training and to appropriate capital to encourage government departments and local governments to include social enterprises in their procurement processes.

The report commits the government to promoting the value of social enterprise and lists a series of actions and administrative arrangements to ensure that the looked for growth occurs. A Social Enterprise Unit is to be established within the Department of Trade and Industry.

The report represents a victory for a loose coalition of interests, including the co-operative movement, Social Enterprise London, the New Economics Foundation, the Development Trusts Association and the Social Investment Forum. Large parts of the policy build on the framework of initiatives spelt out in the Social Investment Task Force, which reported to the government in October 2000.

For more details and a copy of the document, please visit http://www.dti.gov.uk/socialenterprise/index.htm.

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