Social Enterprise Day: Treasury Minister – Rt Hon Liam Byrne – says next decade could be the best decade for social enterprise

Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said yesterday that the next decade could be the best decade ever for social enterprise.

Mr Byrne was speaking at a conference, Social Enterprise 09 – the future of public services, organised by the Guardian, held yesterday to mark Social Enterprise Day.  Social enterprise has come a long way and now has a turnover of £24 billion, he said.

‘In a climate of spending cuts and a need to reduce the budget deficit over the next few years, social enterprise has a huge role to play in delivering public services’. He added: ‘here is a strength that we can build on in the years to come. The state and civil society together can do more than each of them on their own.’

The Minister also said that communities should be more involved in designing the public services of the future and that politicial parties ‘must do far more to inspire the new generation of community entrepreneurs’ and that his Government was committed to the social investment bank and social impact bonds.

I also managed to get a few minutes with Byrne after his talk and asked him what Government could do to help social enterprise. Here’s the video: 

- Pontus Westerberg