The government has pledged £2.7 million for communities to run their own businesses.

Three senior members of the cabinet announced plans to create community interest companies.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, home secretary David Blunkett and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt pledged that the new companies will "radically change the social enterprise sector" by enabling community groups to fund and run their own firms.

The new companies will link business expertise and contacts with community groups which otherwise find it difficult to get enterprises off the ground.

The legal basis of the new firms will help community groups that want to bid for local government contracts.

The money, which will be released through the Adventure Capital Fund, will see groups get grants of up to £300,000.

The three Whitehall departments are launching the scheme in a bid to boost business activity in socially excluded areas.

The Home Office is backing the scheme through its Active Communities Unit.

"Social enterprise is vital to communities. But securing the necessary finance can be difficult. Too often grants are short-term and unpredictable and commercial loans are expensive and hard to obtain," David Blunkett said.

The Treasury is involved because of the chancellor's mission to see the UK reach its full entrepreneurial potential.

A key problem has been raising levels of enterprise in the UK's least prosperous communities, where barriers are typically greatest.

"Enterprise is central to the government's approach to economic policy and to rebuilding communities," said a spokesman.