Housing association enterprise arm celebrates 25 years of success for Leeds businesses

The not-for-profit subsidiary of Leeds-based BME housing association Unity Homes and Enterprise has showcased 25 years of supporting entrepreneurial activity in the city by hosting a high profile panel discussion reflecting on its achievements, chaired by Yorkshire Asian Business Association (YABA) founder Sharon Jandu OBE.

After starting from humble beginnings, Unity Enterprise (UE) now provides 153 business units across three centres for 97 diverse businesses which collectively employ more than 1,400 people.

Speaking at the Unity Homes and Enterprise Annual General Meeting in Chapeltown, Ali Akbor OBE – its chief executive when UE was set up – told the audience that the organisation “had always wanted to do more than housing.”

He said: “Housing was a key part of the community needs here, but housing is only a start. Educational disadvantage, health disadvantage and economic disadvantage were big factors in UE being created.”

Phil Cole, head of business support at Leeds City Council, was also instrumental in establishing UE back in 2000 and has remained pivotal to its continued success.

“Chapeltown and Harehills Enterprise Limited, known as CHEL, had got into got into financial difficulty and the Council believed in having a community-based organisation in this area,” he said. “We felt that the hard work of CHEL needed to be continued in one form or another, and we started talking to Unity around that.”

He continued: “It’s about supporting local businesses and giving people a chance to come through. I think we can see that it’s working.”

Jamal Tahlil, chairman and principal founder of First Response Group was, until recently, a UE business tenant.

“Just before the financial crisis in 2008, we looked around to see what the best location for us was to do our business and make our office,” he said.  “We wanted to know what was the most cost-effective building, car park and so on close to home. It happened to be Unity Business Centre. Along the way, we’ve grown our business from a £1 million annual turnover to where it is today with eight offices across the country. We employ almost 2,000 people now, with an annual turnover of £80 million. We only moved out last year, so have been with UE for over 17 years.”

He added: “I just want to say thank you very much and please continue what you have done for us for many, many years for the next generations of entrepreneurs to come.”

Patrick Bernard, is principal solicitor at Bernard Solicitors and a current UE business tenant.  He explained: “Most times clients will contact me by mobile, but you still get some old school clients who just turn up at the office unannounced, no meetings being arranged. And I’m glad to say the reception staff deal with them greatly for me. They’ll take a message, take a number and get the number to me quickly and I can get in contact with them. So very, very supportive.”

And he had his own a message for UE.  “Keep on making your presence known in the community, liaising with the community, listening to the community and keep on providing that support to the community.”

Saskia Fishley – a Unity housing tenant and owner of O’Fishley Baked and O’Fishley Brunched – recently completed Steps to Business, a free course organised by UE and designed to equip aspiring entrepreneurs in Leeds with the knowledge and confidence to start and build their own business.

Speaking about the support she received, Saskia said: “They helped me write a business plan, strip back my business and learn the fundamentals of what I need to put into place to grow.”

She continued: “If I didn’t do the course, I wouldn’t be where I am. It would have taken me longer because I’ve got the business plan in place, it makes sense for everything else now. Whereas before I was just baking from home, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it. But now I’m in the community, people can see me. I can reach out to a lot more people. Brilliant.”

Thanking the panellists for their contributions, Sharon Jandu, who also serves as chair of UE, said it was “a wonderful and real privilege” to be involved with its work.

She added: “There are so many success stories associated with Unity Enterprise going back a quarter of a century.  It is inspiring to hear them and to see how the services and support its fantastic team provides can and does change lives.”