Tax relief required to make social enterprise 'sexy'

The majority of Scottish people understand social enterprise and are calling for the UK government to introduce tax breaks to encourage investment into the sector.

An Ipsos MORI poll commissioned by the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition (SSEC) last month found that 65 per cent of 1,006 people asked north of the border understood the term social enterprise. This is up from 57 per cent in a MORI poll carried out six months ago and compared with just 20 per cent in England, according to the government's Central Office of Information research on social enterprise.

Of that 65 per cent, 81 per cent said the UK government needed to do more to encourage investment in social enterprise and 79 per cent agreed that tax breaks for social enterprise investment should be equal to that received by people who invest in private companies.

The public call echoes that of SSEC, which has long called for tax breaks on investment to help the social enterprise sector grow.

Antonia Swinson, CEO of SSEC, said that tax relief was now essential to 'make social enterprise sexy' to encourage partnerships with and investment from the private sector.

'We could argue that the private sector is going to be the saviour of social enterprise, not the public sector, but we need mechanisms in place,' she said.

'If social enterprise is going to grow, then tax breaks on risk money is the only way. That's why now conversations with the private sector are so important  - we're going to need it to build to scale. There's a real opportunity to link with CSR programmes.'