The Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson, has launched a review to increase the economic and social impact of mission-led businesses in the UK economy. Mission-led businesses use their business models to achieve both social and economic impact but do not register their mission in legal terms by becoming a charity or a community-interest company. According to the Government, growth is being driven by the millennial generation who are demanding an increased focus on social purpose in their work, how they consume and where they invest.
It’s estimated that there are as many as 180,000 of these businesses in the UK employing 1.5 million people and turning over £150 billion a year and the review, led by the Cabinet Office, will examine how this emerging sector can be supported over the next decade. It will shortly issue a Call for Input and report by the end of 2016.
Nigel Wilson, CEO of Legal & General Group and chair of the external advisory panel to the review, comments: “Like us the best businesses aspire to be both economically and socially useful. This study of the mission or socially-led business sector hopes to bring greater clarity to a fast-growing, dynamic part of the economy which often plays a key role in providing the UK with its research and development capabilities that neither industry, government nor the education sector have cracked.
“Businesses of this type are neither charities nor straightforward companies, but many are dynamic and entrepreneurial: they can help address major social issues, while innovating and creating jobs. They are a real force for good, and we hope to help develop the best framework for them in which to operate.”