Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) of social enterprise leaders would vote for Britain to stay in the European Union, while 67 per cent would be worried about access to European social funds if Britain left, a survey has revealed.
The survey, carried out by Social Enterprise UK (SEUK), found that only one in seven social enterprise leaders would vote for Britain to leave the EU. The results came from an online survey which was completed by 230 social enterprises operating in the UK, between 7 December 2015 and 25 January 2016.
Although only a small representation of social enterprises – there are approximately 70,000 in the UK – the survey reveals that 54 per cent of those polled would be worried about access to European markets if Britain left the EU.
A further 43 per cent said that they would be worried about the possibility of the Scottish government pushing for another referendum if Britain left, as it is keen to stay as a member of the EU.
Two thirds (63 per cent) said they saw no advantages for their social enterprises of Britain leaving the EU. Yet 24 per cent said less social and environmental regulations (red tape) would be beneficial.
A further 21 per cent said they would have more direct access to global markets if Britain left, because the EU currently negotiates on behalf of Britain.
It also found that 58 per cent social enterprise leaders said that the future of their social enterprise would not be at risk if Britain left the EU, compared with 22 per cent who said it would.
Peter Holbrook, chief executive of Social Enterprise UK, said: “As the Prime Minister seeks to negotiate a better deal for Britain, we were interested to find out what those running social enterprises thought of Britain’s membership of the European Union and how they would vote in a referendum.
“This research shows that the majority of social enterprise leaders surveyed would prefer to stay in the EU, and perhaps unsurprisingly, not being able access to European funding would be a concern for some social enterprises if Britain were no longer a member of the EU.”
Other figures showed that 33 per cent of social enterprises employ non-UK EU nationals. The survey also found that 18 per cent of social enterprises export to the EU, while 15 per cent export to countries outside of the EU.
When asked what the impact on growth would be of leaving the EU, 36 per cent of respondents said that their social enterprise would not grow if Britain left the EU, 40 per cent said it would make no difference to their growth, and 10 per cent said their social enterprise would grow.
