b'Company means: (a)a company within the meaning of section 1(1) of the Companies Act 2006, or (b)a society registered or deemed to be registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions Act 1965 or the Industrial and Provident Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969. What does commercial purpose mean? There is no definition contained in the Act or any guidance (at the time of writing) which explains the meaning of these words. However, The judgment of the Haringey case4 now provides much needed clarity to this difficult local authority vires (powers) issuesee Chapter 4 above and Rob Hanns Local Authority Companies and Partnerships.The 2003 Act and general competence trading for commercial purpose 6.7 It is surprising, perhaps, that the previous commercial trading powers were retained alongside the general powers of competence and not repealed by the 2011 Act. So, since the section 95 remains post general competence powers introduction, what is the effect of the new power? Section 4 of the 2011 Act adds an extension of the existing commercial purposes scheme under the 2003 Act in respect of acts undertaken in exercise of the general power. Thus, if the general power permits an authority to undertake an activity, section 4 allows the authority to perform that activity for a commercial purpose. Similarly to the 2003 Act powers, any such commercial enterprise is to be conducted through a company as defined under the Companies Act 2006. Meaning of local authority 6.8 One of the areas needing care is to ensure the particular authority seeking to take advantage of the general competence powers is, in fact, able to do so. Section 7 of the 2011 Act contains the relevant definition of local authority which includes: (a)a county council in England; (b)a district council; (c)a London borough council; (d)the Common Council of the City of London in its capacity as a local authority4 Peters v Haringey LBC and Lendlease Europe Holdings [2018] EWHC 192 (Admin).71'