Duncan Williamson: Community Interest Companies and Social Enterprises cicse.html

Whilst channel hopping to avoid a particularly screechy weather forecaster on News 24 the other morning I came across a debate in the House of Lords on BBC Parliament: well, it's the next channel along and when you're desperate, the first flick of the Channel + button is the most effective.

Part of the debate I watched contained references to CICs: Community Interest Companies. A new form of Social Enterprise for the non profit making community (I am old fashioned and don't like the term not-for-profit I'm afraid).

Having become interested to find out what CICs are, here are a few links that you should find interesting:

Please note: CICs exist now.

From that DTI page on this topic:

The legislation providing for CICs is now in force, the Regulator's office is open, and his website provides guidance for potential applicants, as well as model application forms for interested parties to use. See www.cicregulator.gov.uk for further information.

Introduction

The Community Interest Company (CIC) is a new type of company, designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good. CICs will be easy to set up, with all the flexibility and certainty of the company form, but with some special features to ensure they are working for the benefit of the community. CICs will report to an independent regulator on how they are delivering for the community and how they are involving their stakeholders in their activities.

The legislation which enables CICs to be formed, and provides for them to be regulated by the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, is contained in Part 2 of the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004 and the Community Interest Company Regulations 2005. As of 1 July 2005, both Part 2 of the Act and the Regulations are fully in force. A separate web page is available on the Act as a whole.

John Hanlon took up post as the CIC Regulator on 1 April 2005.

There are several very useful links on that DTI page that will be of use to anyone who needs to know about CICs and who might want to set one up.

Following this link, you can see the kinds of arguments for an against CICs that organisations such as

Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
The Cooperative Party
ICAEW (Chartered Accountants)
Directory of Social Change

have made. That page also contains a very useful sample of the comments received.

Here is an introductory page at the DTI that is an easy to read introduction to Social Enterprises (SE) and has a number of links to SEs as well as CICs and more.

Social enterprises are businesses distinguished by their social aims, by the way they use their surpluses to achieve these aims; and by their ownership and management structures. Social Enterprises employ several million people across Europe, contributing to their economies and society
See http://www.sel.org.uk/

Social Enterprise London is a page that begins to explain what an SE is. Here are six examples of SEs to start with:

Examples

The FRC Group
The Big Issue
The Co-operative Group
Impact Community Developments
Pack IT
Future Health and Social Care

For more examples of social enterprises with lots of detail see the publication Social Enterprise Magazine

Two Case Studies of Social Enterprises that are worth reviewing are:

GreenWorks

Greenworks contracts with companies in the city of London to dispose of their waste furniture.

Green-Works got started thanks to an entrepreneur with social commitment, drive and skills to make it work. It has found, and delivered to an untapped niche market. Its added value means that clients are prepared to pay more to fund its social goals. Green-Works is an example of how a social enterprise can 'join up' the agendas of private, public and community sectors.

See Green Works

TREES

TREES stands for 'Training, Regeneration, Education, Employment, Sustainability'. Its roots are in Leicester Housing Association (LHA), a 'housing and regeneration agency' founded in 1973. Today LHA manages more than 7,500 homes across 32 local authority areas.

See TREES

Finally, the DTI has a Social Enterprise Unit: visit their home page. This page has several very useful looking links to follow!

Finally, Keith Masson (see below) has provided me with this link that you might find very useful and not just for Social Enterprises and CICs either. In this case, once on that page, scroll down to Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Bill for links to all the Parliamentary stages so far.

I am grateful to Keith Masson, Bill Manager, Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Bill of the DTI for pointing a small error in the first edition of this page.