4,000 social enterprises to close this winter due to financial pressures, report warns

As many as 4,000 social enterprises are likely to stop operating this winter due to huge financial pressures, new research has revealed. Social Enterprise UK’s (SEUK) quarterly Social Enterprise Barometer report found that social enterprises across the UK are increasingly faced with high operating costs as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. SEUK surveyed 222 social enterprises last month to understand how the impact of inflation, high energy prices and the rising cost of living have impacted their financial health and growth. The report said: “Across all indicators of social enterprise business health, we see signs of significant strain over the last quarter. Cash flow and reserves positions have worsened, turnover and growth expectations are down, and staff numbers have declined – although we see through qualitative responses that little of the reduction in staff is redundancy, it’s largely people not being replaced.”