How Social Enterprises Are Setting the Standard for Better Business

At a time of growing economic inequality, climate crisis, and public disillusionment with big business, a quiet but powerful movement is reshaping the UK economy from the inside out. Social enterprises are businesses built around social and environmental purpose. They are not only doing good, but demonstrating a model of business that is ethical, sustainable, and profitable.

Unlike traditional businesses, which often prioritise shareholder returns above all else, social enterprises are purpose-driven by design. And crucially, they’re not just small-scale or symbolic initiatives. They are viable, competitive enterprises that are proving every day that good business practices are not a liability but can be an asset.

These enterprises are already influencing how businesses think about employment, pay, environmental impact, governance, and tax. From ethical fashion labels to national food brands, they’re not just working differently; they’re showing how to work better. And many of the most successful of these enterprises are faith-based in their origin, ownership, or values.

Beyond Charity: Why Social Enterprises Matter

Three-quarters of all jobs in the UK are in the private sector. What happens in business deeply affects our communities, environment, and social fabric. Too often, conventional business models externalise their social and environmental costs—offloading risk onto workers, communities, or the planet. But social enterprises challenge that logic. They reimagine profit not as the ultimate goal, but as a means to a broader end.

Research in 2022 by Tim Thorlby at the Jubilee Centre found that faith-based social enterprises are leading the way in seven areas of ethical business: purposeful enterprise, dignified work, fair pay, relational capital, rooted communities, fair taxation, and environmental stewardship. Across a wide range of sectors from hospitality to construction to IT, these enterprises are showing how business can be a force for social good.

And their impact isn’t theoretical. Dozens of UK enterprises are already delivering change, creating jobs, paying fairly, reducing environmental harm, and strengthening local communities.

Clean for Good: Changing the Rules in Low-Wage Industries

One sector where the contrast between traditional and social enterprise models is stark is cleaning. Known for tight margins and low wages, the cleaning industry’s profitability has long been reliant on precarious contracts and poor working conditions. But one social enterprise is proving that even in this tough sector, values-led business is not only possible but profitable too.

Clean for Good, a London-based social enterprise, was founded to demonstrate that cleaning companies can pay fairly, treat workers with dignity, and still thrive commercially. All of its employees are paid at least the Real Living Wage, an independently calculated rate by the Living Wage Foundation that reflects the actual cost of living and is therefore higher than the government’s minimum wage.

But Clean for Good doesn’t stop there. It also provides occupational sick pay from day one and has become one of the first employers in the UK to offer the Living Pension, another Living Wage Foundation benchmark to ensure staff can retire with dignity. This is part of a broader commitment to quality employment, where contracts are secure, workers are respected, and the business model is transparent.

The result? Clean for Good has not only grown sustainably (turnover has increased past £1.5m) but has gained national recognition, including Fair Tax Mark accreditation. This is another signal of its commitment to ethical business practices. As a model, it challenges the common assumption that social responsibility and commercial success are mutually exclusive.

Setting the Benchmark: The Power of Accreditation

Social enterprises often seek independent validation of their impact. Many pursue accreditation from the Living Wage Foundation, B Corp, or the Fair Tax Foundation to embed accountability into their business models.

For example, COOK, the award-winning frozen food brand, is one of the UK’s earliest certified B-Corps. It employs more than 1,600 people and has made ethical employment central to its growth strategy. Through its RAW Talent programme, COOK supports people who have faced barriers such as prison, addiction, or homelessness to re-enter the workforce. It also runs in-house training academies, offers interest-free loans to staff in crisis, and shares a portion of profits with employees annually.

By exceeding industry standards and formalising their values through accreditation, companies like COOK and Clean for Good send a clear message to the wider business world: if we can do it, so can you.

Creating Pressure and Possibility for the Mainstream

What makes social enterprises so influential is not just what they do, but how they unsettle the excuses of larger businesses. When a small cleaning company in East London can offer a Living Pension, why can’t a multinational with hundreds of millions in profit?

Social enterprises serve as a proof of concept and therefore as a challenge. They demonstrate that exploitative labour models, environmental shortcuts, or tax avoidance are not structural necessities; they are choices. And they invite larger companies to make better ones.

This influence is not abstract. Some clients of Clean for Good have now started requiring other contractors to meet similar ethical standards. In this way, the positive practices of social enterprises ripple outward through supply chains and corporate procurement.

Moreover, social enterprises are not content to quietly coexist with the mainstream. They are actively pushing for change and advocating for policy reform, partnering with communities, and participating in business networks that aim to transform the economy from the ground up.

Rooted in Place, Driven by Purpose

Another hallmark of social enterprises is their commitment to place. Many are deeply embedded in local communities, not only hiring locally but also contributing to community life. Take The Grace Network in Gloucestershire, which runs a portfolio of community businesses like Stroud Furniture Bank and The Long Table that provide meaningful local employment while modelling circular economy principles.

Others, like Radiant Cleaners in Nottingham, restrict their contracts to areas reachable by public transport within 30 minutes, ensuring work is accessible to those who may not drive. These decisions may limit short-term growth but build long-term sustainability and social value.

And unlike much of the corporate world, which often separates “doing good” – perhaps through corporate volunteering or its charitable giving –  from the business model, social enterprises embed it at every level from ownership structures and profit-sharing, to employment practices and supply chain ethics.

A Call to Action: Mainstream Business, Take Note

The 21st Century Pioneers report makes clear: the renewal of the marketplace has already begun. It’s happening in industrial estates and community cafés, in circular fashion studios and urban farms, in law offices and cleaning contracts. These businesses—often founded or led by Christians—are not waiting for someone else to fix the system. They are building something better now.

For policymakers, this means recognising social enterprises as essential partners in economic development and levelling up. For investors, it means moving capital toward businesses with purpose, not just short-term return. For consumers, it means supporting enterprises that align with your values.

But most of all, for large and mainstream businesses, the message is this: learn from social enterprises. Adopt their standards. Partner with them. Integrate their practices. And acknowledge that the future of business is ethical, sustainable, and purpose-driven.

Because the real risk isn’t that ethical business costs too much. It’s that unethical business costs us everything.

By Josh Harris, Director of the Joseph Centre