Rise, the regional organisation in South West England supporting social enterprises, which just last month became the Social Enterprise Mark's sole shareholder, is to close, while the Mark will become an independent company.

Rise’s chair Andrew North has blamed a lack of government support for social enterprise and the demise of the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA) which was Rise’s main funder.

Last year the government decided that all RDAs across England would close by March 2012.

As a result the board of Rise has decided to dissolve, as there is no prospect of future business or direct funding.

Rise’s most recent accounts show it has a healthy balance sheet with £389,744 in reserves, and a net asset value of £30,582.

However, a spokeswoman said that as the future is not financially sustainable the board decided the best way forward is to close.

Rise’s board will decide how to reallocate the company’s assets at a later date.

The Social Enterprise Mark will now become an independent community interest company.

Until recently the Mark had two equal shareholders, Social Enterprise UK and Rise. But Social Enterprise UK pulled out of the Mark last month, saying it wanted to concentrate on growing the social enterprise market.

At the time, Rise had bought Social Enterprise UK’s share and became its sole shareholder.

Locality is awarded Mark

Elsewhere, community charity Locality, which is running the government’s £15m community organisers programme, has become a Social Enterprise Mark holder.

The charity, which was formed this year from the merger of bassac and the Development Trusts Association, announced the news at its first annual convention this week.