26 recommended actions to support female entrepreneurs in the UK

Introducing a Female Enterprise Investment Scheme as part of the 2025 Autumn Budget should be one of several actions taken by the government to support female entrepreneurs in the UK, a new report by the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) has concluded.

Discussing WEC’s inquiry into female entrepreneurship, chair Sarah Owen MP said it received “concerning evidence that female entrepreneurs face significant disadvantages in accessing finance, networks and support due to systemic bias, a lack of diversity among investment decision-makers and entrenched cultural norms”.

The report said access to finance for female-founders is a “crucial issue” given the “tiny fraction” of venture capital investment that does going to supporting women-led businesses. Despite numerous reviews and initiatives “this situation is getting worse not better”, it warned.

Only 2p in every £1 invested in venture capital funding in the UK goes to female-founded businesses, and it is estimated that supporting women to have the same access to investment that their male peers enjoy will deliver an economic boost of over £250 billion.

Included in an extensive list of 26 recommendations (published below), the committee said the government should launch a Female Enterprise Investment Scheme which incentivises investors to back women founders with tax relief, as well as mandating the Financial Conduct Authority to require venture capital firms to report on the number and proportion of deals that go to female-led businesses. Firms should be fined if they don’t comply, it said.

WEC said it was “deeply disappointing” that the government’s Industrial Strategy and Small Business Strategy didn’t include specific measures to support female-led businesses. It called for an “ambitious strategy” for female founders to be published within 12 months.

Other recommendations include the government setting itself a target for the proportion of public contracts awarded to female-led businesses, Innovate UK ringfencing a minimum of 30% of its funding for female entrepreneurs, and a large-scale nationwide programme for supporting female founders across all sectors.

Sarah Owen MP said: “WEC’s female entrepreneurship inquiry heard from a range of successful businesswomen.

“Yet the Committee received concerning evidence that female entrepreneurs face significant disadvantages in accessing finance, networks and support due to systemic bias, a lack of diversity among investment decision-makers and entrenched cultural norms.

“Programmes to address these impacts have been insufficient in scale and ambition and despite best efforts have had limited effect, with female entrepreneurs remaining disproportionately underrepresented and underfunded.

“A national strategy is needed to drive the systemic change that is required. The ambitious programme we are calling for needs to include a mix of incentives, targets and mandatory reporting if it is to be effective.

“The Autumn Budget is a prime opportunity to unlock the full potential of female entrepreneurs.

“As a first step, we would encourage the chancellor to fully recognise the potential of female entrepreneurs by bringing forward a Female Enterprise Investment Scheme in the forthcoming Budget, with higher incentives to existing arrangements.

“Existing biases in the investment landscape and a lack of awareness of existing reliefs show that a new, easily marketable incentive is required. Such an investment in female entrepreneurship by the government would have immediate impact, deliver economic returns to the Treasury and would demonstrate the government’s commitment to supporting female-generated economic growth.”

The government has two months to respond to the report and its recommendations.

The full list of recommendations to support female entrepreneurs

All the recommendations taken direct from the Women and Equalities Committe report:

Access to finance for female entrepreneurs

1. We recommend that the British Business Bank should:

• have a fifth strategic objective, to ensure that equity finance to female entrepreneurs in the UK increases from 2% to 10% by 2030;
• set itself the target of ensuring that no less than 30% of the finance it makes available to UK businesses is allocated to supporting female-led businesses;
• ensure gender balance on its investment/assessment committees; and
• require all investors seeking its support to sign up to the Investing in Women Code.

2. We do not accept arguments that transparency and accountability in venture capital are too difficult, and neither should the government. The Financial Conduct Authority should be mandated to require all registered venture capital firms to report on the number and proportion of deals that go to support female-led businesses and the overall proportion of funding that represents.

These details should be published on an annual basis. Financial penalties should be levied on firms who do not comply with this reporting requirement. This regime should be introduced in this Parliament.

3. In the immediate term, the British Business Bank must take more of an interest in whom its funding supports. Venture capital firms and angel investors that benefit from public funding should be required to demonstrate gender-equitable investment decisions. The British Business Bank should require all investors it supports to provide data on the proportion of that finance they make available to female-led businesses.

4. We do not support mandating gender quotas on investment committees at this stage, as measures to improve transparency and increased incentives to change behaviour should be given time to have an effect; but the government should not rule out intervention in the future if the level of venture capital investment in female entrepreneurs shows no sign of improvement.

5. Public funding structures should challenge gender bias and not reinforce it. Innovate UK should:

• ringfence a minimum of 30% of its funding for female entrepreneurs with year on year increases to 40% by 2030;
• in the short term lower leverage ratios and reduce match funding requirements for women-owned businesses to help level the playing field and allow equitable access to opportunity;
• ensure gender-equitable assessment panels;
• publish gender-disaggregated data on funding applications, approvals and allocations, that data should include information on ethnicity and disability of applicants;
• recognise femtech as a high value sector; and
• review programme design and application processes, critically evaluating them for potential forms of indirect discrimination that may act as barriers to female founders.

6. The government should develop and publish an ambitious strategy for advancing female entrepreneurship to sit alongside and complement the existing Industrial Strategy and SME Strategy. This strategy should be published within 12 months.

It should be developed in consultation with stakeholders across the investment landscape but particularly female entrepreneurs. It should include a focus on sectors of the economy not deemed to be high growth such as beauty and social enterprise, where female entrepreneurs currently feel overlooked despite delivering long-term sustainable growth and employment. The recommendations of our report should provide a good starting point for such a strategy.

7. The strategy should be overseen by a dedicated minister and office within the Department for Business and Trade akin to the US Office of Women’s Business Ownership, with an assigned budget and responsibility for driving implementation of the strategy, and ensuring accountability and transparency through data collection.

8. The government should set itself a target for the proportion of public contracts awarded to female-led businesses similar to initiatives in Canada, the US and Nordic countries. Given the low base we suggest a target of at least 10% by the end of this Parliament.

The proposed new office should have responsibility for driving this reform and provide training and support to help female founders navigate public procurement processes.

9. We call on the British Business Bank to ringfence a minimum of 30% of Regional Angel Programme funding for supporting female angel investors and investment in female-led businesses across the regions and to publish data on take-up by gender.

The Bank should also review the access requirements to the programme to ensure that smaller angel groups, particularly those led by women who have less capital behind them than their male peers, are able to benefit from the Programme’s co-investment funds.

10. Tax incentives such as SEIS and EIS have proven effective in stimulating investment. Yet awareness, accessibility and take-up remain lower among women investors and outside of the South East.

To achieve meaningful change, government and industry must work together to raise awareness of the benefits of tax incentives, build inclusive investment communities, and ensure that female entrepreneurs have equal access to the financial tools needed to grow and succeed.

11. The government should launch a Female Enterprise Investment Scheme to sit alongside the EIS and SEIS, with higher incentives to specifically drive investment in women-led businesses. People who invest in women-led businesses should receive greater benefits. Existing biases in the investment landscape and a lack of awareness of existing reliefs show that a new, easily marketable, marquee incentive is required.

Such an investment in female entrepreneurship by the government would serve to demonstrate its commitment to supporting female-generated economic growth. The scheme should allow SEIS-level tax breaks of up to a £2 million threshold.

12. The government should remove entirely the age limit on eligibility for the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). The existing seven-year threshold does not adequately reflect the structural and social challenges faced by many female founders, including longer growth trajectories typical of the sectors in which they operate and the impact of caregiving-related career breaks.

Extending the eligibility period would better accommodate these realities, promote gender equity in access to growth capital, and support the scaling of female-led enterprises across the UK.

13. The government should launch a campaign to increase awareness of the SEIS, EIS and proposed FEIS schemes among investors and female entrepreneurs. The campaign should be appropriately tailored to ensure underrepresented groups of women are aware of the schemes. The government should collect data on the schemes by gender and region to monitor take-up.

14. Institutional investors, including major banks and pension funds, are a key component of the funding landscape. We call on them to do much more to support female-led businesses, including through supporting the Invest in Women Taskforce.

15. The government should update us in its response to this Report on the steps it is taking through its convening powers to get those investors, particularly the signatories of the Mansion House Accord, to support the Taskforce.

Networks and support for female entrepreneurs

16. As part of a new strategy for female entrepreneurship, the government should establish a large-scale nationwide programme dedicated to supporting female founders across all sectors to sustain and scale up their businesses.

The programme should offer mentorship, sponsorship, coaching and networking for female entrepreneurs with a particular focus on raising capital. It should seek to connect female founders with industry leaders and experienced entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds and sectors who can offer guidance on business scaling, investment negotiations and market expansion.

The government should work with metro mayors to develop the hubs in their areas and to ensure they are appropriately tailored to meet regional needs and locally supported and promoted.

17. The government should develop a specific programme of promoting targeted, female-focused accelerators in high growth sectors where women are underrepresented. Such a measure was noticeably missing from the Industrial Strategy.

18. Universities are a vital source of innovative start-ups, but evidence to this inquiry suggests women are less likely to take up entrepreneurship courses and/or develop spinouts than their male peers. This is a missed opportunity for growth.

The government should work with UKRI to develop a specific programme of dedicated entrepreneurial support for women in postgraduate and postdoctoral studies. The programme should include increased opportunities for, and better signposting to, entrepreneurial fellowships, funding and pre-accelerator programmes. It should include female-focused networks for sharing experience, mentorship and guidance and seek to instil confidence in taking the step towards entrepreneurship.

19. Alongside a strategy on female entrepreneurship, the government should launch a national campaign highlighting female role models at all stages of the entrepreneurial journey. It also needs to better promote the Invest in Women Hub.

Caregiving and maternity

20. Self-employed women (and those employed via their small business) are poorly served by the UK’s parental leave arrangements. As part of its parental leave and pay review, the government should review legislation pertaining to maternity through the lens of a self-employed woman and seek to tailor policies to support women’s entrepreneurial aspirations.

21. We acknowledge the government’s desire to protect a mother’s time with her baby. As such, we recommend that maternity allowance is increased for self-employed mothers in the first six weeks to bring it closer in line with statutory maternity pay. This will allow more mothers to spend time with their babies in the early weeks. A very limited number of Keeping in Touch days should be permitted in this period. After six weeks we recommend self-employed mothers be allowed to Keep In Touch with their business as often as necessary.

22. The Department for Work and Pensions should review funding for Universal Credit and reclassify Maternity Allowance so that it is not treated as “unearned income” for the purposes of Universal Credit, so that when self-employed women access it, their Universal Credit is not reduced.

23. We reiterate the conclusions from our report on paternity and shared parental leave. Improved paternity leave and pay and reform to the shared parental scheme is long overdue and would directly benefit female entrepreneurs.

24. The government should undertake a review of the adequacy of existing childcare support for self-employed mothers. That review should consider: the potential merits of making childcare a tax-deductible expense, if only for an initial period; expanding free hours of childcare to include services, such as nannying, that can cover the period from 0–3 months, when most nurseries do not accept babies; how to encourage more flexible childcare services; and making support, such as tax relief or pension credits, available to encourage family members other than parents to undertake childcare and relieve some of the burden borne by the mother.

Financial education and enterprise skills

25. The government should work to increase the provision and relevance of financial and enterprise education in schools and to ensure that it is delivered as a core part of the curriculum. Seeking to increase the financial confidence of girls should be a key element of the provision.

26. Women and girls remain underrepresented in STEM subjects and less likely to pursue entrepreneurship in this field. The government and higher education institutes should work to address gender bias in curriculum design in STEM subjects and strive to increase the visibility of female role models to support this work.