The Minister for Industry and Regions, Alun Michael, announced this week the Government's plans to "secure social enterprise's place in the business landscape".

At the annual Social Enterprise Conference, Mr Michael emphasised the impact of social enterprise on the UK's communities as well as its economy, while the Prime Minister expressed his ambition to "see social enterprise become a mainstream choice for anyone setting up in business".

The conference also launched the four key themes that will make up the Government's social enterprise plan (due to be launched in the spring). These are:

1. More research to confirm the positive impact of social enterprise.
2. Ensure publicly funded business support is able to support social enterprises.
3. Remove barriers to social enterprise in the procurement process for public sector contracts.
4. Raise awareness of social enterprise among new entrepreneurs.

In light of recent findings about the amount of money wasted by the Government in research projects that have little impact on real businesses, we'll be paying attention to how far these plans go to support the growing social enterprise sector in the UK.