From credit unions, support services, recycling and photography – social enterprises make-up almost 3,500 businesses in Greater Manchester. Now, a survey backed by local and national partners reveals the value the sector contributes to the region.

The survey found that there are almost 3,500 social enterprises across Greater Manchester, who reinvest between £45-90 million back into the region every year.

The GM Social Enterprise Survey 2020 collected data from 140 social enterprises and was supported by Power to Change, Social Enterprise UK and The Business Group. Local social enterprise partners Flourish CIC, Abram Community Cooperative and Manchester Social Entrepreneurs helped to administer the survey.

The survey’s key findings include:

  • Half of social enterprises across Greater Manchester are working in education, health and social care (49%) – which have been vital industries during the pandemic.
  • More than two thirds of social enterprises work in hyperlocal areas and 41% of social enterprises in Greater Manchester are reinvesting profits in the communities in which they operate.
  • Social enterprises in Greater Manchester also work across diverse sectors reflecting the communities that they serve to improve, ranging from manufacturing and agriculture to hospitality, finance, arts, construction, education, health and social care.
  • One fifth of social enterprises in Greater Manchester work to improve people’s health and wellbeing, another fifth work directly to support vulnerable people. 94% have at least one woman on their board, 18% have board members that are black or minority ethnic, 33% have disabled people on their board, and 63% of social enterprises have members of the local community on their board.
  • 86% of social enterprises in the region also pay the real Living Wage (rather than the National Living Wage), which is far higher than the private sector and even higher than other social enterprises in the rest of the UK.

For more information on the survey, please contact Jon Monk: jonmonk@thebusinessgroup.org

Data Summary