Liam Byrne, Minister for the Cabinet Office, today predicted a new era of influence for social enterprises as he announced steps to harness the sector to help Britain get through the economic downturn.
In a speech to the Voice 09 social enterprise conference in Birmingham, Liam Byrne said the British public would be more open to the ideas and ethos of social enterprise given the anger with banking leaders.
Measures designed to aid aggressive growth in the social enterprise sector will be drawn up at a Social Enterprise Summit co-hosted with Business Secretary Lord Mandelson. The summit will identify how Government can support social enterprises to grow and play an even bigger part of the new British economy.
There will be a drive to create 25,000 jobs in social enterprises by expanding their role in providing public services. To support this, Liam Byrne revealed that he will personally review the pipeline of public service contracts together with others, to get deal blockers out of the way.
And a new online capital market will bring together in one place all the advice, funding and contract opportunities available to social enterprises.
Minister for the Cabinet Office, Liam Byrne said: "Whether it's dealing with the current downturn or preparing for the new opportunities that lie beyond, social enterprise will become more not less influential on the path we take as a country.
"I'm not naive enough to believe that every business in the country is going to emerge from this downturn with a double bottom line. But I think the country is going look harder for ethos with its enterprise. It's going to look harder to see whether a business offers care and trust, not just cut and thrust. This isn't a new idea - but it's an idea whose time has come."
