Transcript Document

“Green Light”
Jane Greenoak
Senior Adviser Funding and Partnerships
National Housing Federation
19th November 2012
“Green Light”
• A Partnership between:
The National Housing Federation,
Groundwork UK,
Aspire Foundation.
• A One Year Project.......as yet.
Objectives
• To identify the range and scope of
sustainable social enterprise development by
Housing Associations, Groundwork Trusts
and others.
• To identify sustainable employment
opportunities for young people, residents and
others in the community, through social
enterprise.
Continued
• To identify the commitment to procuring from
social enterprise by Housing Associations.
• To spot the opportunity for ‘new jobs’ and in
particular Green Deal new jobs, within social
enterprise.
How did the project come about?
• In response to the frustration experienced
with the Work Programme, and the
recognition that there is a shortage of
employment opportunities, particularly for
housing association residents and young
people.
Preliminary Findings
(Approx 100 responses to date)
• 92% of respondents so far are interested in social
enterprise to create jobs for tenants, but over 40%
want to save money and another 20% want to
generate income.
• 70% have community projects with the potential to
become social enterprises but 65% have not yet set
up any form of social enterprise. There seems to be a
lot of potential for supporting the transition of
appropriate projects into social enterprises.
Continued
• 35% have a preferred suppliers list that includes
social enterprises, 65% don’t. Only 20% have already
included any other measures to encourage social
enterprises to participate in the supply chain.
• Four housing associations so far have established 5
or more social enterprises, and in, total, the social
enterprises from 72 respondents are employing 1500
people.
44% of respondents have been unable to access any external
support to set up a new social enterprise and the three main
barriers to establishing a new social enterprise are listed as:
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Staff time
Lack of sustainable business model
Lack of in-house expertise
The most requested type of help was:
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Sharing best practice
Specific social enterprise consultancy / business support
Money for staff time / start-up capital
Examples
• Great Places Housing Group, Manchester
They have:
Tiny Tots, Northmoor Laundry, Shamwari Project, Community
Interpreters, StEP.
• Poplar HARCA, London
They have:
Newmill Consultancy, Matchbox Nursery, Leaders in Community and a
number of others through their work with the Bromley by Bow Centre.
Continued
• Shepherds Bush Housing Group, London
They have:
Staying First (this contains a number of separate enterprises eg
Furnish, a reuse enterprise; a Painting and Decorating
enterprise; a Debt and advice enterprise) They have also
established Academy4Housing with three other HAs as a social
enterprise offering training and apprenticeships.
• Aster Group, Devizes
They have:
Twice as nice (Furniture re-use) and a wide range of care related
services
(Technically all Aster subsidiary companies are social enterprises)
What we did next
• Brought respondents together.
• Asked them to identify priorities.
• Engaged with the broader social enterprise community to inform
future developments.
Conclusions
• Social Enterprise is one of a number of responses to providing
employment opportunities.
• There is considerable enthusiasm and support within the
Housing Association sector.
• We would like to work with Housing Associations and the
broader social enterprise community, to support members to do
more.