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Launch of UnLtd India - Uk India Business Council

The Rt. Hon. Stephen Timms MP,  Former Minister of State for Competitiveness
House of Lords, London,  24 October 2007

Thank you, Sharon.

I am delighted to be here to support the launch of UnLtd India, and its ambition to support a new generation of social entrepreneurs in India by equipping them with the business know-how and skills which have made social enterprise so successful in the UK over the last few years.

India’s phenomenal growth is increasingly a decisive influence in shaping the world economy. And the closeness of our historic links means there are particularly striking opportunities for Britain in what is happening. The UK is the 3rd biggest investor in India. And Indian investment into the UK is growing rapidly, with really big deals like those between UB and Whyte & Mackay and between Tata and Corus just in the first half of this year. I visited the Corus steelworks at Port Talbot in July and was impressed by the new sense of confidence that the Tata acquisition had given the workforce there.

The UK captures 60% of all Indian investment in Europe. A Lehman Brothers report published last week commented, India’s economy is “ready for take-off”, so I think its clear we can expect to welcome a good deal more Indian investment into the UK in the period ahead.

The Lehman report also emphasised that India needed “a faster and a more inclusive” growth strategy to correct regional imbalances and avoid social unrest. It suggested this inclusive growth could be facilitated by easing the restrictions on business, by making education and health services more widely available and by developing the rural sector, which still employs 60% of the workforce.

And its here that our experience in the UK suggests that social enterprise can make a very important contribution. Reinvesting their surpluses into the business or the community, we have found that social enterprises can successfully combine the creative genius of entrepreneurship with passionate commitment to overcoming injustice or social exclusion, to make a real social impact. I spent a week travelling round the country some time ago, visiting social enterprises, and I was very impressed with what I saw.

One example I visited is the Eden Project in Cornwall, where Tim Smith’s vision and determination had produced by the time I visited 1,700 jobs in the South West and given Cornwall the third most popular paid attraction in the country, with tropical gardens under giant glass domes. It is transforming the economy in rural Cornwall, a part of the country that has been among the most hard-pressed in the past. Previously struggling hotels and boarding houses are being repainted and expanded. The project is focusing on buying food and other supplies from local firms – Tim told me when I was there that they had invited 500 local firms to a supplier's conference and 478 of them turned up.

When I asked Tim what was the aim of the Eden Project. He said: "To change the world". This is ambition on a grand scale! And social entrepreneurs and social enterprises across the UK are changing the world for many people – employing their drive, determination and entrepreneurial thinking to build human capital, bringing people back into employment, reviving communities and improving the environment. The enthusiasm and dedication of the people involved are deeply impressive, and the results they are achieving are too.

We have social enterprises which:

• tackle social and environmental problems;
• improve public services and make them more responsive;
• encourage ethical consumerism;
• pioneer new business models;
• encourage disadvantaged young people into employment;
• attract new people into entrepreneurship, particularly from groups under-represented in commerce.

It must be right that social enterprise can offer a great deal also to an economy expecting growth of over 9% a year but also having to deal with the challenge of over 300 m people living on less than a dollar a day, especially when we know that Indians are such enterprising people. In the UK, we will be delighted to help, to try and ensure that the benefits of growth reach all members of society.

The most recent research shows there are now at least 55,000 social enterprises in the UK, contributing £8.4 billion per year to Gross Value Added, turning over £27 billion and employing two thirds of a million people. A survey of 15,000 social enterprises found one in five had a turnover of more than £1m per year.

To help the sector, we launched the new company form of “community interest company” in Spring last year, with a lock to ensure that the company’s assets can only be used for the social purpose. Already, almost 700 have been created.

My colleagues in the Office of the Third Sector have the prime responsibility for the Government’s policy on social enterprise, and they published a social enterprise action plan last year. It was called ‘Scaling New Heights’ and was launched by the then Chancellor, now Prime Minister, on Social Enterprise Day last November, part of my Department’s annual sponsorship of Enterprise Week. We will celebrate Social Enterprise Day again next month, in Enterprise Week – an idea which has started to be taken up around the world.

The Action plan sets out actions to be undertaken by the Office of the Third sector, other government departments, and Regional Development Agencies to foster an environment in which social enterprise can thrive. It covers four areas:

• Fostering a culture of social enterprise;
• Ensuring the availability of the right information and advice to start-up and grow social enterprise;
• Enabling social enterprise to access appropriate finance; and
• Enabling social enterprises to work more effectively with government in pursuit of common goals

We will be setting out shortly our assessment of the achievements during the first year of the plan’s implementation.

Let me just thank the newly formed UK India Business Council for bringing us together this evening, and wish you all well as you participate in the programme of Next Generation India initiatives over the coming months.

UnLtd India has an important part to play in the changing India that we have heard so much about – a nation energised now by a passion for new ideas, and by a hunger for growth and development – and an India which is increasingly the focus of the world’s attention and admiration. I wish UnLtd India great success.

Thank you.