Written By Sandra Edmund

Government Taskforce led by Minister Liz Truss and Chaired by Starling CEO & Founder will double women-led businesses by 2030

Words Sarah Adama

The Government has set a target to double the number of female entrepreneurs in the UK by 2030. 

In light of this target, Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz Truss, will spearhead the ‘Taskforce on Women-led High Growth enterprises’, alongside Chair Anne Boden, the CEO and founder of digital lender Starling Bank. Its membership comprises an array of women that have led and scaled high growth businesses and funds in the country. The taskforce aims to ‘influence high growth investors, the wider business community, and to raise the aspirations of the next generation of female entrepreneurs, especially looking to encourage women based outside of the capital,’Chair Anne Boden said. 

The launch of the Taskforce follows up with initiatives announced on International women’s day to level up employment opportunities for women, and the Rose Review which found that there is potential for the economy to receive a £250bn boost if the barriers for women entrepreneurs are broken. Over the past few years, there has been promising growth in innovative women-led businesses, yet it has grown more evident that more needs to be done to support women in high-growth business. Limited funding, lack of support, lack of understanding of business laws and regulations are amongst the biggest barriers slowing down the expansion and scaling of women-led businesses. Now, there is a growing speculation that IR35 reforms could blockade the Taskforce’s efforts as the reforms are would pose an even bigger barrier as the reforms are ‘confusing’ and ‘discriminatory’ to many sole trader businesses and freelancers and many women-led businesses begin as one-person limited companies. Evidence brought forward by a Public Accounts Committee this week found that HMRC’s tax reforms surrounding freelancers and contractors are “creating widespread non-compliance”. The report found that HMRC has failed to adequately consider the wider impact of the reforms, which is pushing freelancers out of the market. 

  

The official statistics are then not surprising:

  • only 1 in 3 UK entrepreneurs is a woman, a gender gap equivalent to 1.1 million missing businesses

  •  male-led SMEs are five times more likely to scale up to £1 million turnover than female-led SMEs

It is true that there is potential yet to be realised, and Minister Liz Truss believes that the force can combat the various barriers to investment and increase employment opportunities for women. This means, she says, “providing everyone, regardless of their origin or place of residence with the opportunity to succeed.”

With the taskforce in session, women entrepreneurs will be equipped with the tools to take their business to the next level with ‘access to finance and growth capital, technology adoption and leadership skills,’ Chair Anne Boden said. She will be joined by some of the top women in business, from the public and private sectors, as they combine their expertise and connections to work with organisations across the UK to support the government’s target - this means the UK would have nearly 600,000 female entrepreneurs by 2030. The taskforce will maintain an acute focus on driving change in growth capital. Boden said the plan for entrepreneurs will ‘provide women with the tools to take their business to the next level: access to finance and capital for growth, technology adoption and leadership skills.’ The taskforce’s work will be a ‘blueprint for all entrepreneurs to follow’ in the future.

Taskforce members include:

Sandra Edmund
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