Manchester should become UK capital of social enterprise, says Andy Burnham

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has called for Greater Manchester to become the UK capital of social enterprise and called on social entrepreneurs to come to the region to make this vision a reality.

“We are always looking to the new in Manchester”, said Mr Burnham, “and social enterprises are the future.”

Mr Burnham was the keynote speaker at the UK Social Enterprise Awards 2019 in London, an annual event to celebrate the achievement of social enterprises from across the UK.

In his speech, he pointed to the creation of a new Social Enterprise Advisory Board in Greater Manchester led by social entrepreneur and chief executive of Sharp Futures, Rose Marley.

He said that the advisory board would explore “how we can put the wind in the sails” of social enterprise and called on social enterprises in Greater Manchester to reach out if they wanted to get involved in the advisory board.

“We need to empower mayors so that they can create the right conditions for social enterprises to flourish like Andy is trying to achieve in Greater Manchester,” said Lord Victor Adebowale CBE, Chair of Social Enterprise UK. “This region was the heart of the Industrial Revolution. It can now be at the heart of a new business revolution.”

Social enterprises are businesses which have a legal commitment to achieving a positive social and environmental impact as well as delivering a profit. Most of the profit that they do make must be either reinvested back into the business or given to another organisation to achieve that impact.