Collectively, these organisations are often referred
to as the social economy or the ‘third sector’
which, since the 1990s, has expanded within the
UK. Reasons for this growth have been attributed
to emerging problems within traditional public
and social services and the welfare state. Mulgan
and Landry (1995) have criticised providers of
public and social services as bureaucratic and
resistant to change and Leadbeater (1997) has
argued that the welfare state has become
overstretched and hampered by severe resource
restrictions. In such an environment, social
enterprises have been identified as vital to the
development and delivery of innovative ways of
tackling social problems which cannot be resolved
through traditional public, voluntary or
community mechanisms.