Restore Enterprise Limited is a registered company limited by guarantee (CLG). The Restore Enterprise Ltd operates as a limited company with a social mandate. This is called a social enterprise. www.socialenterprise.org.uk "Social enterprises are dynamic businesses with a social purpose working all around the UK and internationally to deliver lasting social and environmental regeneration"

What is a Social Enterprise

Social enterprises are social mission driven organizations which trade in goods or services for a social purpose. It could be that the profit (or surplus) from the business is used to support related or unrelated social aims (as in a charity shop), or that the business itself accomplishes the social aim through its operation, say through the employment of people from a disadvantaged community including individuals and existing business who have difficulty in securing investment from banks and mainstream lenders.

Social enterprise is a relatively new term for a type of business that has existed for at least a century. The term social enterprise relates to social entrepreneur, the name originally given to 19th century philanthropic businessmen and industrialists, who had genuine concern for the welfare of their employees. (see also entredonneur). Today, its use varies in different regions.

In Britain, the focus is on the use of the surplus as the defining characteristic. European usage tends to add the criterion of social rather than individual ownership.

Social enterprises are generally held to comprise the more businesslike end of the spectrum of organisations that make up the third sector or social economy). A commonly-cited rule of thumb is that at least half their income is derived from trading rather than from subsidy or donations.

Whereas conventional businesses distribute their profit among shareholders, in social enterprises the surplus goes towards one or more social aims which the business has - for example fair trade, vocational training for disabled people, or environmental issues.

Social enterprises are distinct from charities (although charities are also increasingly looking at ways of maximising income from trading), and from private sector companies with policies on corporate social responsibility.

In the British context, social enterprises include community enterprises, trading arms of charities, employee owned businesses, co-operatives, development trusts, housing associations, social firms, and leisure trusts.

3 common characteristics of social enterprises as defined by Social Enterprise London are:

Enterprise orientation: They are directly involved in producing goods or providing services to a market. They seek to be viable trading organisations, with an operating surplus.

Social Aims: They have explicit social aims such as job creation, training or the provision of local services to under-developed comunities. They have ethical values including a commitment to local capacity building, and they are accountable to their members and the wider community for their social environmental and economic impact.

Social ownership: They are autonomous organisations with governance and ownership structures based on participation by stakeholder groups (users or clients, local community groups etc.) or by trustees. Profits are distributed for the benefit of the corporate community.

The UK has also developed a new legal form called the Community Interest Company (CIC) - http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/. CICs are a new type of limited company designed specifically for those wishing to operate for the benefit of the community rather than for the benefit of the owners of the company. This means that a CIC cannot be formed or used solely for the personal gain of a particular person, or group of people.

For more information click: www.socialenterprise.org.uk