£1m boost to help young businesses with a social conscience

The funding will enable Social Incubator North, a new programme to be launched shortly, to provide investment to local social start-ups or expanding businesses and offer a period of intensive support.

The idea is that this will help turn early-stage ideas into successful businesses with a social conscience, by giving entrepreneurs access to the resources they need to get their ventures off the ground.

The Government funding will be matched with another £1m from the delivery partners.

Social Incubator North will be led by Sheffield-based Key Fund in collaboration with four regional social enterprise partnerships in the North of England and Locality, a nationwide network for community-led organisations. The Government funding comes from its £10m Social Incubator Fund, which was launched last year and is delivered by the Big Lottery Fund on behalf of the Office for Civil Society.

Ann Oldroyd, chief executive of Key Fund, said: “We have over a decade’s experience nurturing new enterprises with a social conscience, and so we’re absolutely thrilled to lead this initiative for the North.

“Together with our delivery partners we can really make a hugely positive impact across the region.”

Social Enterprise Yorkshire and the Humber, North East Social Enterprise Partnership, Social Enterprise East Midlands, Social Enterprise North West and Locality are the delivery partners.

Each partner is a membership body responsible for directing growth in their particular region.

Locality, a partner of the Government, runs a host of community asset ownership, social action and enterprise projects with its members and partners.

All its projects aim to empower people and improve communities.

Ms Oldroyd added: “It’s a Northern alliance at work. We understand the market conditions at grass roots and together are best placed to interpret and react to the characteristics of our region’s economy.

“It’s an exciting initiative for the North. Social business can be any kind of model as long as it aims to have a positive social or environmental impact and there’s market demand for it.

“We really want to inspire people to come forward who have a passionate idea but just need the right support and access to finance to make it happen.”

Itself a social enterprise, Key Fund, which was founded in 1999 and provides a mixture of flexible grant, loan and equity packages to support social enterprise activity, says it has invested more than £26m to date.