Greens and Lib Dems Visit Green Heart Collective To Discuss Their Vital Work in Gateshead

We were delighted to be visited by two local prospective parliamentary candidates this week. It was a great opportunity to show Rachel Cabral, Green Party and Ron Beadle, Liberal Democrats the work we've been doing, saving perfectly good items from landfill while supporting the local Gateshead community.

This also gave us the chance to explain the importance of supporting social businesses like ours and why we have joined the Future Economy Alliance; putting people and planet before profit is key to a healthy, sustainable economy for Gateshead and nationwide.

Please full our full press release below, for immediate release:

Greens and Lib Dems visit Green Heart Collective to discuss their vital work in Gateshead

Ron Beadle, Liberal Democrats and Rachel Cabral, Green Party recently visited Green Heart Collective, a local social enterprise on a mission to benefit the people and places where it operates.

Green Heart Collective, which has been in Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency since it moved from Team Valley in August 2023, invited all the prospective parliamentary candidates into their preloved shop on Gateshead High Street to see first-hand the impact of their work not only for the economy but the community and the environment. Two of those contacted were able to attend.

Green Heart Collective works to keep waste out of landfill through selling online, through its Gateshead shop and through supporting other charities, community projects and local citizens directly. It works with a diverse range of community groups through its volunteering and work experience programmes.

During their separate visits Ron Beadle and Rachel Cabral met with staff and volunteers, and were able to look at and hear about the diverse range of activities that Green Heart is involved in.

Ron Beadle, Liberal Democrats said: “"As a local councillor and PPC for Gateshead Central and Whickham, I was delighted to be able to visit Green Heart Collective for the first time. I was particularly struck by the statistic that 4 million people work for social enterprise's, cooperatives, B-corporations where profit is not pursued to the exclusion of people and the environment. As Liberal Democrats we are committed to growing social enterprises, co-operatives and mutuals".

Rachel Cabral, Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate said: “Lovely to visit the Green Heart shop today and see how they are acting responsibly for people and the planet. More important than growth is that we do business sustainably, focusing on the long term.”

She added: “I have witnessed the decline of Gateshead, with many empty properties owned by landlords who never visit the area. They don't know what Gateshead needs today. It's great to see social enterprises like Green Heart bringing new life to the town centre”.

Andy Redfern, co-founder of Green Heart Collective said: “Social Enterprises make a big difference in Gateshead and we are grateful for the help from Gateshead Council’s Social Enterprise support programme. We look forward to whoever represents Gateshead in Parliament making the social impact of business a real priority. Gateshead has an amazing heritage of creating long lasting impact through using business for good - Traidcraft, Shared Interest and Ethical Superstore all have their roots locally - now is the time to capitalise on that. Time to support social businesses that put people and the planet before profit.

Green Heart Collective is a supporter of the Future Economy Alliance: a nationwide movement of social enterprises and investors, co-operatives and mutuals, employee-owned and community businesses, fundraisers and third sector experts who believe profits must also benefit people and planet.

An estimated four million people (around 10% of the UK workforce) are employed in such organisations, making a huge contribution to the economy* and representing a significant voter base for politicians ahead of the General Election due to be called this year.

Andy Redfern said: “We’re part of the Future Economy Alliance campaign because, as one of the four million people who put a mission at the heart of our work every day, we know how much better things could be if more organisations were like this. It’s great that Ron Beadle and Rachel Cabral visited us, as the people who want to lead our country must understand how vital our way of working is in tackling the big challenges we face. With more support for mission-led organisations like Green Heart, we can fix our economy and fix our future.”

To find out more about Green Heart Collective’s work, visit https://www.greenheartcollective.uk/. 

To join the Future Economy Alliance campaign, visit futureeconomyalliance.co.uk.

The candidates for Gateshead Central and Whickham are:

• Ron Beadle - Liberal Democrats
• Rachel Mary Cabral - Green Party
• Mark Ferguson - Labour Party
• Norman Hall  - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
• Damian Heslop - Reform UK
• Nick Oliver - Conservative and Unionist Party
• Graham Steele - Save Us Now

As well as visits from Rachel and Ron, we had apologies from Mark Ferguson.

ENDS

Picture captions

• Rachel Cabral inside Green Heart shop : (left to right) Andy Redfern, founder of Green Heart Collective. Rachel Cabral, Green Party PPC. Connie, a regular volunteer at Green Heart.
• Rachel Cabral outside Green Heart shop: (left to right) Connie, a regular volunteer at Green Heart. Rachel Cabral, Green Party PPC. Andy Redfern, founder of Green Heart Collective.
• Ron Beadle Inside Green Heart shop: (left to right) Andy Redfern, founder of Green Heart Collective. Ron Beadle, Local Councillor and Liberal Democrats PPC.
• Ron Beadle Outside Green Heart shop: (left to right) Ron Beadle, Local Councillor and Liberal Democrats PPC. Andy Redfern, founder of Green Heart Collective. 

Notes to editors

* 4m stat based on aggregation of data from Co-operatives UK, the Employee Ownership Association and Social Enterprise UK to estimate the UK workforce in social enterprises, charities, B-corps and the democratic economy. Workers in employee-owned businesses and co-operative social enterprises are 8-12% more productive than people working in other business models - and social enterprises alone contributed 3.4% of UK GDP last year, generating £1.2bn in profit and reinvesting £1bn into social and environmental missions.

About the Future Economy Alliance

The Future Economy Alliance unites champions of change across business sectors working to build a stronger, fairer, greener economic climate for the UK.

The pioneering partnership brings together social enterprises, co-operatives, mutuals, employee-owned businesses, social investors, community-led organisations, fundraisers and third sector experts united in the vision of an economy where the entire society profits. Their Business Plan for Britain sets out a series of practical policy interventions to help achieve this goal.