The Regeneration Engine
Leveraging the market to counter the forces of decline.
The UK’s First Wealth-Import Social Franchise
We aren’t inventing these mechanisms – we are synthesising them into a Private-Sector Engine for Public Good.
- Fair Capital Engine
counter to Extraction - Opportunity Engine
counter to Exclusion - Wealth Import Engine
counter to Illusion
To counter the structural failures of the “Branch Plant Paradox”, “Aggregation Tax”, and “Effort-Reward Gap”, we must do more than create jobs; we must anchor wealth where it is created. We replace the extractive model of profit repatriation with Gross Value Added (GVA) Retention. By hardwiring the distribution of surplus value into the legal constitution of the firm, we convert transient corporate yield into Anchored Wealth. This maximises the local “Consumption Multiplier,” ensuring that business success translates directly into immediate spending power for the local high street and permanent equity for the community.
Validation Proofs: evidence that the components of our engines work in the real world.
The growth of the employee-owned sector—increasing by 60% since 2010—signals a broader movement toward this model of custodianship, which now accounts for over £30 billion in annual UK turnover.
Riverford Organic Farmers: Founder Guy Singh-Watson utilised an EO trust model to ensure the business could never be sold to external shareholders, thereby protecting its founding values forever. Riverford’s 100% employee-owned status, achieved in 2023, demonstrates that the EOT can sustain high commercial performance while prioritizing long-term relationships of trust with staff and suppliers.
Richer Sounds: By transferring a 60% majority stake in Richer Sounds to its staff specifically to ensure the business could never be sold to external aggregators, and ensuring that the surplus value (GVA) generated by local workers remains in the region rather than being extracted by distant shareholders.
Research involving over 1,500 accredited Living Wage employers validates the profound business benefits of this commitment. Over 94% of accredited organizations report positive impacts, including a 62% improvement in recruitment and an 87% boost in brand reputation. At KPMG, the adoption of the Living Wage resulted in cleaning staff turnover dropping from 44% to 27%, directly reducing recruitment and training expenditures. These findings suggest that the Real Living Wage functions as a primary driver of retention and productivity, transforming labour from a variable cost to be minimized into a core asset for long-term growth.
Shaw Healthcare: One of the UK’s largest employee-owned companies, Shaw utilises the benefits of the EOT structure to share profits through tax-free bonuses, which not only rewards staff but also enhances their sense of participation and engagement in the company’s success. By aligning the financial success of the firm with the income growth of the local workforce, the social franchise model ensures that the community directly benefits from every pound of profit generated.
Richer Sounds: Profits were redirected back to the workforce in the form of tax-free bonuses—including an initial £3.5 million windfall—thereby converting potential “capital flight” into local consumption.
The effectiveness of EMI is demonstrated by its dominance in the UK share scheme landscape, where 89% of companies using tax-advantaged schemes select EMI. For the employee, the advantage is clear: no income tax or National Insurance is due at the time of grant or exercise, provided the options are granted at market value. When shares are eventually sold, employees qualify for Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR), significantly reducing their tax burden and facilitating meaningful wealth accumulation. This creates a powerful signal that everyone—from entry-level staff to management—is working toward the same standard of success and long-term valuation.
Audit Reform Lab: A study of EU and UK firms provides empirical proof of the damage caused by the erosion of capital maintenance standards. The top 20% of highest-distributing firms were found to pay out an average of 178% of their net income to shareholders between 2009 and 2019.
Thames Water: a recent example where the company was able to distribute more than 100% of its net income to shareholders resulting in what has been described as the “pillaging” and “looting” of its assets, leading to declining operational resilience and the potential requirement for significant government intervention.
Capital Buffers and Valuation: Maintaining strict equity buffers (as seen in Norwegian utilities or Mondragon) actually increases long-term valuation by reducing the firm’s risk profile and attracting “patient capital”.
Suma Wholefoods: The UK’s largest equal wage employer, Suma has successfully maintained a 1:1 pay ratio for over forty years while growing into a £43 million turnover business. Public perception in the UK strongly supports these measures, with 55% of the public in favour of capping executive pay to reduce the gap between high earners and workers.
Pay Cap Research: Research demonstrates that a firm’s cost of capital increases significantly as CEO power (measured by the pay ratio) rises. Beyond financial costs, reporting a high pay ratio is empirically associated with adverse changes in employee morale and relative reductions in labour productivity, particularly as measured by revenue per employee in customer-facing sectors where employee discontent can directly impact sales. Research shows that pay cap mandates effectively curb speculative short-termism by reducing the incentive for CEOs to manipulate earnings to achieve truncated compensation targets.
To counter “The Blockade” of Exclusion, we must do more than simply lower the barriers to entry; we must dismantle the systemic obstacles that lock local talent out of the modern economy. We recognise that for many, the “Survival Barrier” makes retraining unaffordable, the “Entrepreneurial Blockade” makes starting a business an impossible risk, and the “Commodity Trap” traps capable people in precarious roles. We replace these hurdles with structural support to unlock the latent potential of our community through a comprehensive mobility infrastructure.
Validation Proofs: evidence that the components of our engines work in the real world.
Jibu and Kidogo: Jibu provides entrepreneurs with the equipment, branding, and training needed to launch water purification micro-businesses, while Kidogo utilizes a social franchising method to support local childcare providers with best-practice curriculum and back-office support.
Clean Slate Training & Employment (CIC): Clean Slate employs standardised frameworks to manage complex employment and training operations, ensuring that new managers can hit performance targets from day one.
Centralized Back-Office: Support including payroll, tax compliance, and secretarial services, ensures that the franchisee is not overwhelmed by the “hidden costs” of administration, thereby increasing the probability of long-term survival.
By providing “wrap-around” support for both the employer and the apprentice, hubs have successfully moved hundreds of people into paid work and training, with 84% of participants remaining in employment for over a year.
The University of Wolverhampton: Their “Hub in a Pub” model validates the efficacy of a physical presence that facilitates integrated progression routes for technical qualifications, specifically meeting the needs of local learners and SMEs who might otherwise lack the resources to manage an apprenticeship program independently.
Redrow: Research shows that 41% of young people associate apprenticeships with the ability to earn money while studying without incurring student debt—a key motivator during the cost-of-living crisis.
St. Martins Group: Research found that the productive output of an apprentice can generate a net gain for employers of between £2,500 and £18,000 annually by the end of their training, validating that paying a higher wage from the start is a sustainable investment in future productivity. By bridging the gap between training and maintenance, the social franchise ensures that skill development is inclusive rather than exclusionary.
Year Up: Randomised Controlled Trials—the gold standard of empirical evidence—confirm that providing trainees with a weekly educational stipend results in a 30% to 53% increase in long-term earnings compared to control groups.
Jobs-Plus: The model, which utilises rent incentives to effectively subsidise the wages of those in training, has demonstrated sustained earnings gains of 16% over a twenty-year period.
Code Your Future: The social enterprise achieves a 95% retention rate by removing holistic barriers through the coverage of student expenses like transport and childcare.
Research: Further validation is seen in the UK, where 41% of young people cite the ability to earn money while studying as a primary motivator to avoid student debt.
University of East London: UEL has successfully pioneered this model through its “Mental Wealth & Professional Fitness” program. Every student’s skills training is recorded in a digital career passport, which has contributed to the UK’s fastest improvement in graduate outcomes—a leap of over 25 percentage points in graduates moving into highly skilled employment.
Private Sector: There is an increasing shift toward “Portfolio over Paper,” with 73% of recruiters now preferring demonstrable talent and case studies over traditional resumes.
Resurgo: Their approach provides intensive mindset coaching and resilience training to address the “defeatist mentality” and psychological blocks that often prevent sustainable work. The results provide clear empirical evidence for this model’s efficacy: despite serving a highly disadvantaged cohort of NEET youth, 75% of those who complete the programme are still in work one year later. By integrating daily assessments of “work readiness” and ongoing coaching, Resurgo ensures that participants possess the independence and self-worth required to maintain their employment
Greater Manchester Housing Partnership & Athena: The “Support to Succeed” initiative engaged over 1,000 participants, supporting 858 people into employment and over 900 people in learning essential life skills.
Research: Businesses that prioritise the employment of people with mental health problems reveals that an atmosphere of openness, flexibility, and strong management support results in high job satisfaction and longer job tenure.
Preston Model: By implementing principles of localised hiring, Preston saw unemployment drop from 6.5% in 2014 to 3.1% in 2017—a rate lower than the UK national average at the time. This localised focus has been credited with moving Preston out of the bottom 20% of the UK’s most deprived local authority areas, proving that a “local-first” hiring hierarchy can successfully combat systemic regional decline.
To counter “The Mirage” of Illusion, we must confront a hard economic truth: deprived communities cannot grow simply by circulating existing money. The “Aggregate Demand Constraint” means that local spending power is insufficient to drive sustainable recovery. We reject the temporary fix of grant dependency. Instead, we will create export nodes, selling goods and services to national and global markets, treating business not as a charity, but as a fiscal stimulus funded by trade.
Validation Proofs: evidence that the components of our engines work in the real world.
Preston Model: The model confirms that by keeping wealth local and fostering shared ownership, citizens can combat the export of jobs and capital by corporate entities. By developing export-capable businesses (such as specialised manufacturing or digital services) that are owned by local workers, a community can attract significant capital from the broader national or global market and ensure that the “upside” of that trade is captured locally in the form of higher wages and reinvestment.
Preston Model: The refurbishment and reopening of local landmarks and the development of community-controlled renewable energy projects.
“Foundational Economy” Approach: Adopted in Wales, this emphasises the role of businesses in delivering social value as a condition of their operation.
Richer Sounds: Countering profit repatriation by transferring a 60% stake to staff, ensuring surpluses remain as local household income via tax-free bonuses rather than exiting to distant shareholders.
Riverford Organic Farmers: Utilising a 100% EOT structure and a “Golden Share” governance lock to protect the firm from external aggregators and ensure it remains a permanent community asset.
Preston Model: The resulting consumption multiplier shows that by redirecting anchor institution spend to local firms, the city increased local economic retention from £38 million in 2013 to £111 million in 2017.
Evergreen Cooperatives: In Cleveland, these demonstrate how anchoring wealth through a “Fund of Funds” creates a self-replicating engine of regeneration, utilising the yield from successful worker-owned firms to seed new ventures.
From Pilot Validation to Systemic Impact
See how we plan to scale this engine from a local pilot to a national network.