If our politicians are serious about utilising social enterprises in addressing social ills and address apathy in our communities, then these efforts needs to be kept at an arm's length from political party influence says Rupert George.
Social Enterprises offer a number of qualities that are not shared by either the public or private sector. Mr Cameron has clearly realised these allow them to tackle various societal challenges that the public sector has found difficult to tackle or perhaps exacerbated. Central to this is the problem of how unengaged or excluded so much of our population appears to be. The balance between rights and responsibilities can only really be put into its proper place if we are engaged and feel included. The public sector has not become a motor for belonging and has not created a concurrent sense of responsibility. So fostering the growth of a new model to create institutions capable of drawing both responsibility and a sense of belonging from the public is a healthy pragmatic step to take.
As an institution the Conservative Party is still struggling with inclusion. The struggle is clear more local than national in character. Despite David Cameron’s efforts to push the Conservative Party into loosing those values that prevent it being capable of being representative of the diversity of the UK. However this local problem with inclusion makes locally based social enterprise with a Conservative root risks, even with independent local conservative roots potentially divisive institutions coming into existence. Well-funded co-operative schools that reject pupils because of the problems brought from their disadvantaged start in life could easily come into existence, the simmering tensions around interviews for admission to academy schools is already showing us the way. Many of our leading public schools where set up to educate the poor. They now primarily serve a very different purpose.
For social enterprise to deliver a dividend for all, to heal our broken society it must carry with it a banner of inclusion, a lack of snobbery and a genuine awareness and commitment to the equality and diversity agenda. I am sorry Mr Cameron but despite your many good words about all of this, I am not convinced that Conservative co-operative movement will be able to offer this. In reality it is going to take at least another generation of brave challenging thinkers like Mr Cameron to inculcate the equality and diversity agenda into the Conservative Party.
The great attraction for many active citizens that social enterprise holds is being able to act for public benefit without needing to be involved with the political parties with such narrow sectional interests. Social enterprise act to bring communities together, they are not political with a big “P”. Social enterprises have the capacity to bring together members of a diverse community together. People with radically different views, backgrounds can come together for public benefit. Politics doesn’t normally allow this to happen. A handful of MPs, unlikely ever to be Ministers and those most refreshing of local councillors who in the absence of tribalism, have a desire to work across party lines to deliver for their communities really mark the limit of party politics to muster this sort of inclusive action.
Party politics has no active place to play in co-operatives or social enterprises. The involvement and “ownership” of the co-operative movement by the Labour Party until David Cameron’s speech last week, excluded Conservatives from latching on to the model. Missing the opportunity of allowing our utilities to become social enterprises rather than privatised during the last Conservative Government was a great shame.
If we are going to replace civil servants with engaged local citizens, local tribal party politics must go the same way as bureaucracy, as it stands in the way of finding the solutions.
Our politicians need to adopt a different approach, involving cross party working and support. They need to back off from social enterprise as a source for personal kudos or party political power and play a very different more disciplined role. A social enterprise dependent on public funding is not an enterprise. It will not have the flexibility or responsiveness that David Cameron spoke about last week. The funding of social enterprises needs to be considered very clearly and perhaps the public sector given its party political connections is not the appropriate body to take it on.
The private sector needs to be lobbied and encouraged through a tax regime to support social enterprise. Tesco’s have applied for planning permission in Harrogate. If they receive planning permission they will have a store in every postcode in the UK. They are very successful. Rather than allowing them to be perceived as a barrier to achieving sustainable communities, Mr Cameron ought to be pressuring them to embrace social enterprise, to support the communities that provide a market for their goods. The huge budgets and infrastructure that the major supermarket chains have at their disposal, give them the power to really have an impact on the growth of social enterprises all over the UK. They have something to gain from the growth of social enterprise, a better business environment. They will have no desire to continuously fund or control social enterprise either.
