Social grows economies
Social enterprises and the social economy are worth £60bn nationally and at least £4.3bn regionally providing 1 in every 10 jobs in the region and of all the sectors are more likely to be led by women (60% estimated). This builds on a long and strong history within the Liverpool city region of social innovation and its commercialisation, particularly by women: including the first public wash houses to address cholera; the first enterprise combining wellbeing care and medicines; and the UK’s first housing cooperatives. They each used commercial trading to deliver a social mission. Power to Change have recently identified Liverpool City Region as one of just three places nationally where the groundswell of community businesses and the social economy is enjoying exceptional growth and scale.
With limited resources the LCR CA must develop an informed strategy, however historic assumptions prevail. That the public sector can deliver better than the private or community sector; that unions will equally protect all of us; that procurement secures best value; that equal opportunities delivers equality; and that sectors - what business we do, rather than how we do business - will drive growth.
These assumptions have all failed to deliver economic inclusion or equity. Those areas and communities who topped the deprivation league tables 30 years ago are still there today.
We believe it is time to invest in how we do business, rather than what business we do, and advocate a groundswell of local social activity, not a trickle down that dries up before it reaches us.
We are not anti-profit, but do want to see profits put to good use and shared fairly. We suggest public subsidies should be applied where markets are failing, such as in care of the elderly or affordable housing that is not really affordable. We propose preference is given to activities that enhance the kind of economy, and world, we want to live in, rather than those that undermine it. One Day requires more socially beneficial organisations and would include in that definition many local, social, family and responsible businesses who reinvest and share their wealth.
“How about we make Liverpool the destination for training on hospitality...
I don’t think there is anywhere that does it better than us”
We don’t want to be venture capitalists, we want to be ad-venture socialists
Hospitality as excellence
Liverpool’s exceptional hospitality is born out by its current status as the UK’s most friendly city. That ability to welcome, entertain, host and serve is the result of the city’s long heritage as an international port, where men and women have always worked both onshore and offshore, travelling the world and welcoming the world, as cooks, cleaners, stewards, bursars, entertainers - not just within the Liverpool region, but on ships that took and traded those skills to other places. Drawing on lessons learnt from the hospitality of other countries and using that learning to make the city of Liverpool welcoming and cosmopolitan, Liverpool’s cultural and service industries were internationally influenced and are inextricably linked as a result.
Our people of Liverpool are world renowned for the hospitality industry and this sector is continuing to grow. The sector and workers need revaluing. Hospitality offers a route into employment and skills for many people and we have the opportunity to draw on our heritage and make LCR the destination of choice for hospitality and service standards and the global destination for excellence in training on hospitality, delivering apprenticeships schemes in relation to gender equality and access.