A new network aimed at boosting social enterprise activity in North-East England has launched.

Making The Change, has ambitious plans to grow the voluntary and community sector turnover by £1.1bn through social enterprises by 2015.

It involves a partnership of social enterprises, who were supported by Business & Enterprise North East (BENE). BENE supports social enterprise through funding from central government and its delivery of the Business Link service for the North East region. It is also the first Business Link in the UK to employ a dedicated, specialist social enterprise team.

Roy Stanley, chairman of Business & Enterprise North East, said: “We want to help the social enterprise sector grow in the North East by more than a billion pounds a year.

“A key element in the plan is for social enterprises to understand the mainstream and social investment offering. And critically, smaller social enterprises must become ‘investment-ready’ so they stand the best possible chance of accessing finance for growth.

“Developing clear financial plans, risk analysis and cash flow projections is crucial to this process.”