Number of UK businesses with social goals may be as high as one in five

A new report by Delta Economics and IFF Research claims that as many as one in five UK businesses have social difference as their primary goal. This would make the number of businesses in the UK that are run according to social principles almost four times as large as the official Government figure for social enterprises.

The Delta/IFF study looked at more than 2,000 entrepreneurs and found that more than one in five operated a business that had a primarily social goal. If these results were extrapolated nationally, this would be equivalent to about 230,000 businesses, with a collective turnover of circa £97 billion.

The study found that about half of these "hidden social entrepreneurs" actually meet an even stricter definition of social enterprise: that they had social benefit as their primary goal, reinvest their surpluses in the business, do not pay a dividend to shareholders and have sales that are more than 25% of revenue.

Rebecca Harding, managing director of Delta Economics, said the survey showed that many social entrepreneurs were still unaware that they were part of a wider movement:

"The social enterprise movement needs to reach out to these people and make sure they are part of the overall social enterprise world. One thing we found is that they do not identify themselves as social entrepreneurs, even if they meet the definition. Social enterprise is a lot more mainstream than people realise. It's not just something carried out on the fringes."

To read the full report click here.