Community Assets No 13 - Community Groups and Social Enterprises (No 1)

In Post No 12 I looked briefly at CPO-ing and funding of the acquisition of a local asset, ie under the Localism Act 2011, one of community value. This post outlines the types of community groups likely to be active in enhancing communities and assets of community value.

Community groups come in many guises and sizes and may be distinguished from social enterprises. Most are regulated under a particular statute which will provide the framework of a body's regulation. Several have particular ways of raising funds, ie ways which relate to their status (see a later post).

A partial list of the bodies involved in a community might carry such descriptions or tags (in the sense the terms are used colloquially) as the following:

• a "charitable trust";
• a "charitable company";
• a "cooperative society";
• a "community group";
• a "community interest company";
• a "community benefit society";
• a "development trust"
• a "housing association";
• a "housing trust";
• a "industrial and provident society"
• a "social company".

Each of the above (and others) will fit into one of two broad categories as social enterprises and community or national groups. The latter, for instance, may be national charity with some local invlovement. The inclusions in a category denote a commonly held functional status, eg charitable, but the "name" say, "community interest group" denotes a legal status . The two broad types are:

1. social enterprises, eg a) industrial and provident society; b) community interest company; c) partnership; and
2. community or "national" groups, eg a) unincorporated (membership) associations; b) charitable bodies, such as charitable trusts/ companies/ incorporated organisations.