South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)

Accessing your Dreams

09 February 2007

The new government backed Women's Enterprise Task Force, co-chaired by Pam Alexander, South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) Chief Executive and Dr Glenda Stone, Chief Executive of Aurora, met for the first time on Tuesday 6th February.

Members discussed their priorities for addressing the Task Force's remit significantly to increase both the numbers and success of women's enterprise across the UK over the next three years.

Speaking at the 4th Annual Prowess International Conference at Brighton both Pam Alexander and Glenda Stone emphasised that access to finance and appropriate forms of investment were a priority to support the growth of women's enterprise, currently contributing £50-70 Billion per annum to UK GVA.

Evidence shows that women are more likely than men to be successful in accessing unsecured loans. But they are more likely to turn them down to rely on personal debt and they tend to be charged higher rates of interest – on average 2.9% verses 1.9% for loans to men. Female owned businesses access only £10,000 on average in start-up funding compared with £15,000 for men, which is likely to constrain their performance and threaten their sustainability.

Pam Alexander, speaking on Wednesday 7th February, emphasised the priority which the Women's Enterprise Task Force attached to this issue: "The undercapitalisation of women-owned businesses results in under performance and slower growth. We need to work with business support providers and banks to encourage women to be ambitious in their business plans and investment ready. Women's enterprise is a key market that the private sector, especially the capital markets of the City, has neglected in the past. Women's enterprise presents a new market opportunity and so the Task Force is keen to address this."

Speaking on Thursday 8th February, Glenda Stone reinforced the value of the women's enterprise stating that "Growing women's enterprise as a market sector affords many commercial opportunities, and these can be developed by private sector working hand in hand with public sector business support agencies."

To find out more about the Women's Enterprise Task Force, please visit www.womensenter prise.co.uk.

For further details on Prowess visit www.prowess.org.uk.