Insight/Case study: Turning the page

The Big Issue group, a social enterprise success story

The Big Issue group - one of Britain’s most famous social enterprises -was founded in 1991 by John Bird and Gordon Roddick, who were inspired by Street News, a newspaper sold by homeless people in New York.

Bird, a social campaigner who had experienced homelessness as a child, and Roddick, who co-founded The Body Shop alongside his wife Anita, wanted an urgent response to the huge numbers of people sleeping rough in London.

By 1993, the monthly publication had gone weekly and regional editions of the magazine were soon established in Scotland, Wales, the North of England and the South West. The Big Issue Foundation was established two years later to address the wider needs of homeless people, offering services such as medical support for mental health issues and resources for drug and alcohol abuse.

The Big Issue is produced by professional journalists and is sold on the streets by homeless people, who buy copies for 70 pence and sell them on for £1.50, keeping 80 pence. It remains at the centre of the group, underpinning work with vendors in Australia, Japan, South Africa, Namibia and Kenya.

In 2005, The Big Issue group opened the third chapter in its story – Big Issue Invest. The  specialty finance company for social enterprises was the brainchild of Roddick,a member of The Big Issue board, Bird (the editor-in-chief) and Nigel Kershaw (then the Big Issue’s managing director), who wanted to find ways to support the growth of enterprises like the Big Issue and Café Direct.

Since raising £3.5million from, among other sources, the Phoenix Fund and Halifax Bank of Scotland, in 2005 Big Issue Invest has worked with numerous social enterprises including Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant group and the mineral water company Belu.

The average size of its loans is around £200,000 although it has put together packages with other social finance institutions worth more than £500,000.

Kershaw, the Big Issue Invest chief executive, sums up the group’s philosophy: “Solving the problem of homelessness is about helping people to help themselves”.

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