Hurd: social enterprises have ‘never been more important’

Social enterprises have ‘never been more important’, said civil society minister Nick Hurd at his first major engagement since taking office.

Hurd last night spoke at the RBS SE100 Index awards which celebrated the top 100 highest growth social enterprises and revealed the three best performers in growth and impact.

Hurd told the 150-strong audience of social entrepreneurs ‘you’ve never been more important’ and urged the sector to 'step up and embrace' the SE100.

‘Think about what the country needs,’ he said. ‘We need people who can create jobs, we need solutions to stubborn, expensive problems and we need community builders who can help communities shape solutions.

‘That is why you are so important.’

Hurd reaffirmed his priority for the sector was to cut red tape, and he pointed out that he was already working with the Business, Innovation and Skills department to ‘clear the thicket of bureaucracy’.

His second priority was ‘opening new markets’. He said that although the ‘size of the public sector cake is going to shrink – the types of services procured will change’.

Finally, Hurd said that one of the things he was ‘most excited about’ was the Big Society bank and making it easier for social businesses to get growth capital and patient capital.

Hurd was followed on stage by Social Enterprise Coalition CEO Peter Holbrook who pointed out that currently 40 per cent of social enterprises get more than 50 per cent of their money from public contracts.

But Holbrook said he had faith in the ability of social enterprises to be innovative and adaptive in the new public spending environment.

‘I’m sure we’re up to the job. There is a huge opportunity to be part of the “big society”,’ he said.

The most controversial speech of the night came from former BBC ‘Dragon’ and School for Startups founder Doug Richard who said that, even though last night was a celebration of social enterprise, he hoped it would be looked back on as the beginning of the end of social enterprise.

‘As people we have a habit of marking the memorable,’ said Richard. ‘So this first index of the top growing social enterprises is an important milestone of how far we’ve come.

‘However, it is my great ambition that in my life we have a time when we count down the last 100 non-social businesses.’

Richard added: ‘What I hope the coalition government does is take this moment that has been given to them, because there is nothing like a crisis to stop doing business as usual.’