RURAL SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

Support for the maintenance of vital village services is one of the ten priority areas of the Government’s November 2000 White Paper, Our Countryside: The Future, A Fair Deal for Rural England. The provision of adequate services, housing, transport and other facilities also underpins many of the other priority areas against a backdrop of service closure and decline. The White Paper commits the Government to addressing this problem as one of a range of measures to build sustainable communities and reduce social and economic exclusion in rural areas. The report goes on to note that one of the instruments gaining increasing prevalence as a solution to this problem is the establishment of community-owned services by members of the community who rely on these services as an integral part of their livelihood.

Rural social enterprises are economic enterprises established with the main purpose of providing an essential service needed by the community, rather than providing an economic return to an investor. To be successful, however, they need to be established and managed in a manner which balances both economic and social objectives. In some cases the receipt of limited public support may form part of their business model. These enterprises include community-operated shops, rural credit unions and community transport schemes.

The Plunkett Foundation is increasingly applying its experience of rural group enterprise development to assist in the growth and development of rural social enterprises. Whilst several single-issue associations have emerged in recent years to represent the interests of specific sectors of this movement, Plunkett is able to add value to their achievements by offering a cross-sector perspective to these developments and by utilising its practical experience of organisational and capital structures for user-owned enterprises.