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SOUTHAMPTON people are being offered the chance to decide how millions of pounds is spent in the city. They can take a share in a new computer company - predicted to earn tens of millions of pounds over the coming decades.

All the profits will be spent within Southampton with "shareholders" deciding what the money buys.

Each of the 26,000 residents of Southampton's SO16 postcode area can apply for a share in the firm, called RISE.

The share has no financial value and cannot be traded but it gives the holder a vote at an annual meeting where shareholders will decide how the profits will be spent.

The cash, initially small amounts but projected to reach £1.5m within five years, can be spent on anything needed by the community - from a playground to a swimming pool.

It is hoped the improvements funded by RISE will pull the area out of the list of the UK's most deprived places.

To get a share and a vote, residents of SO16 need only fill out the brief questionnaire on page 28 of today's Daily Echo or on the website at www.dailyecho.co.uk/ debusiness and send it in.

A trailblazing scheme, RISE is the last gasp of the Outer Shirley Regeneration project and is intended to keep generating income for the wards of Millbrook, Redbridge, Coxford and Shirley long into the future.

RISE managing director Iain Lucas, pictured, said: "I think we are the first to do this in the UK, to offer shares in this way, but we are a pioneer in many other ways.

We make money and the money that we make as profit is used for the benefit of the community.

"They can't spend it on a holiday but they can spend it on a playground, better football facilities, street lighting or getting a local market going.

"It is not money in their pocket, it is money in their community. That's what they will have influence over. The share is a legal document that gives you a right to vote at an AGM.

"We need as many people involved as possible, the more the better. We are hoping for ten per cent of the area's population, that's 2,600 people."

Currently a small company with a turnover of £50,000, employing four people at a small shop in Irving Road, bosses expect the business to grow dramatically in coming years as it taps into a £16 BILLION market. Organisations like local authorities and housing associations are increasingly favouring social enterprises, giving a head-start to RISE, the only computer firm of its kind in the country.

"It's an Internet based company that builds whatever computer you want," said Mr Lucas. "We have built 80 units so far. It tends to be for home office type businesses rather than large companies at the moment.

We also offer the service and installation side."

Next year RISE, which had a £230,000 start-up grant from regional development agency SEEDA, is expected to show a small profit on a turnover of £204,000. By year five it is forecast to be earning £18m and returning £1.5m, most of which will be spent in SO16, with some reinvested in the business.

"Shareholders in 2011 will be voting on how to spend £1m in the area and they can spend it on anything the community needs," said Mr Lucas, who has a background in social enterprise start-ups across the country.

"Our ambition is to become the biggest electronic retailer in the country. That is going to mean jobs for the area and better paid, skilled jobs, increased levels of skills locally and tens of millions of pounds spent over the years on improving the environment here.

"Ultimately the measure of success is to take the area out of the bottom 20 per cent of deprived areas in the UK."

To find out more log on to www.risecomputershop.com.

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