The achievements will be marked at a special 10th anniversary celebration on November 22nd where the guests of honour will be Ken Skates AM, the Welsh Government's Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport, and Ceri Witchard, Regulator of
Community Interest Companies.
The voucher scheme is also available to social enterprises,
community Interest companies, charities, small office/home offices and sole traders.
Applicants can include voluntary and community organisations, charities,
community interest companies, social enterprises and the local authority.
As MEA House reaches its 40th anniversary, it is still the only office accommodation block in the city to provide this service, and has extended its criteria to enable selected local
community interest companies, industrial and provident societies and other forms of social enterprise to rent space there.
The UK is home to 68,000 social enterprises, 'good' businesses that include co-operatives,
Community Interest Companies and trading charities.
This is all legal because
community interest companies, or CICs, can be run by salaried directors, without the need for any unpaid trustees that would monitor registered charities.
Jodie King, Becky Ellington Samantha Collin, Simon Willison and Gemma Madden, all from Stockton, benefited from cash awarded to three
community interest companies.
CHARTERED Accountants Mitchell Charlesworth has helped set up one of the first
Community Interest Companies (CIC) in the country.
Councillor Ian Mearns, deputy leader of Gateshead Council, says: "Social enterprise and
community interest companies will develop further in the next few years, ensuring that they no longer struggle to access external finance and that regulatory, tax and administrative systems do not hinder their development."
"The new centre includes all the things we had before, plus four
community interest companies within the centre, including George's Place for the children, which includes the creche.