‘I live this. I know it. I see it.’ - The 25-year rise of one Scottish social enterprise tackling poverty head on

It is one of Scotland’s largest and most successful social enterprises, turning over north of £2.5 million, supporting some 1,500 people a year with employment, training and housing opportunities and running a furniture reuse scheme that has helped lift hundreds of people out of poverty.

Now, 25 years since it was founded, Inverness-based New Start Highland (NSH) has bold plans in store to see it through the coming decades as it ramps up its efforts to tackle critical issues such as poverty, climate change and the cost-of-living crisis.

Founder and chief executive James Dunbar says 2025 marks a “pivotal point” in the venture’s quarter-century journey to date thanks to the launch of a first-of-its kind training and reuse “village” in the Highland capital, encompassing a community café and training kitchen, a bike repair hub and a tool library.

Some of the workshop activity being undertaken at New Start Highland.

The project in the Carsegate business district of the city represents a £500,000 investment by NSH and is expected to create up to 40 trainee and employment opportunities annually, building on the support the venture already offers to people experiencing vulnerability due to living in poverty, exiting homelessness, loneliness or social isolation.

Speaking as the final touches were being made to the yard café and training kitchen at the heart of the village, prior to a “soft launch”, Dunbar outlines his hopes for the initiative and the role it can play in addressing the staffing pressures within Scotland’s hospitality industry.

“The biggest barrier to many operators looking to open full hours is a lack of people,” he says. “The yard café will be there to train people in front-of-house work and provide barista skills and kitchen skills. We are looking to support young people and those who are attempting to return to work and allow them to develop those skills and become an asset to a local business, and at the same time lift that person out of the level of poverty that they are experiencing.”

The training and reuse village is a longstanding vision of Dunbar’s, set against the backdrop of inflationary pressures and figures highlighting stubbornly high levels of child poverty.

James Dunbar, chief executive of New Start Highland.

“Over 70 per cent of the children in poverty in Highland are in working households,” he notes. “We have the whole cost-of-living crisis and we have been trying to find ways to help mitigate some of the pain people have been suffering. They are really struggling.”

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The village project, which is being financed through a mix of grant and direct funding, is just the latest enterprise for an organisation that has racked up some impressive statistics since its launch at the turn of the millennium. Among those, NSH has provided around 30,000 furniture packs to people exiting homelessness, diverted well over 10,000 tons of furniture and homewares from landfill and supported almost 6,000 families in managing a tenancy. In the past year alone, it has provided 33,647 meals for the local community and managed the reuse of more than 70,000 household items.

“The progress we are making is exciting and positive and making a real difference to lots of individuals,” Dunbar stresses. “The more that social enterprise delivery is invested in, then the more benefit we will experience as a nation.

“I live this. I know it. I see it. It’s such a common sense solution for improving our communities and creating better physical and mental health while supporting our friends in the private sector to have a workforce so they can grow their businesses.”

For the current financial year, the venture - which has a headcount of 82, alongside the many volunteers and trainees - is anticipating revenues of more than £2.5m and about 83 per cent of that will be self generated. Turnover is projected to increase to £3m the following year.

Self-generated income comes from the retail elements, removals business, house clearances and a number of contracts with the public sector. The remainder comes from grant funding but that percentage is falling as other revenue streams increase.

“We recognise that as a social enterprise you can do more if you are willing to invest your own money,” declares Dunbar. “The situation with grants is that they are not what they used to be.

“There is a misconception around a social enterprise that is probably influenced by the phrase not for profit. We use our profit to deliver good and to deliver social change. What we can’t do is take the profit out of the business. Whenever we do make a profit we simply do more for the community.

“What can be delivered by a social enterprise with an amount of money is incredible because if there is an element of grant that money can be multiplied by our enterprise activity. Instead of getting a benefit of one for that pound you might be getting a benefit of ten.”

Having started out delivering small kitchen and cooking items, the past two-and-a-half decades have seen the organisation develop a full furniture service - a move that aligns neatly with the environmental and recycling agenda. Dunbar highlights a report suggesting that two-thirds of young people classed as Generation Z will endeavour to buy reused before they buy new.

Talk of grant funding and public sector support inevitably steers the conversation towards politics, but New Start Highland’s founder adopts a neutral stance ahead of critical government spending budgets on both sides of the Border.

“I am supportive of people whose policies are looking to equip and skill and recognise that everyone can make a contribution in society. I will work with anyone who wants to assist,” he states.

£2.9 billion to the good: How Scotland’s social enterprises are on the rise