Entrepreneurs and small businesses make up the backbone of Britain’s economy, with SMEs impressively accounting for more than 99% of UK businesses. They give jobs and opportunities to millions of our friends and families. Yet from COVID-19 lockdowns to the rising cost of energy bills, they are facing some of their biggest challenges for decades.

This new report from a group of Conservative MPs looks at how to grow ‘Enterprise Britain.’ Talking to business owners, banks, digital providers and trade bodies, the report concludes that there is a whole lot more that government and businesses can do.

From teaching young people how to start a business, to accessing cash to grow your sales to making the most of digital technology, there are lots of ways we can help drive better paid and more jobs across the UK.

Our report makes recommendations in three areas including access to finance, better business advice and flexible working.

We’d like to see better access to finance, in particular for female entrepreneurs. At the moment, for every £1 of venture capital investment in the UK, business led by women get less than 1p, where male led businesses get 89p! So one of the proposals is to get more diversity on the decision-making bodies that hand out the cash.

Recognising that there are many businesses struggling to find staff yet, more than 5.8 million people claiming UC, a second proposal is to provide support to those claimants who would like to be working for themselves. At the moment, Job Centre work coaches are required to monitor income from self-employment against entitlements but not necessarily to encourage new business start-ups. So we propose that advice and know-how should be available perhaps through local job clubs or through the British Library support hub scheme.

Perhaps the biggest change post Covid is how many people now see greater flexibility in their work life arrangements as essential. There are thousands of people who could be working but are not willing or able to meet inflexible shift patterns. So the report calls on the government to consult with trade bodies into how flexible arrangements can become standard. Businesses trying out new arrangements are already finding it easier to recruit new staff and their workers are more likely to be loyal and experiencing greater job satisfaction.

The UK has a real culture of enterprise and that will only grow over time. There’s a lot government and the private sector can do to ramp it up.

You can read the full report here.

Thanks to the Daily Express for featuring the report.