Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith MP

British Chamber of Commerce

She has been the first-ever female President; she is an entrepreneur herself and has moved mountains to update the Chamber's image to that of a modern movement that encompasses the needs of both men and women. Today's Chambers are home to thriving women's networks and women in business groups, not to mention thousands of women entrepreneurs.

Moreover, many of the largest and most successful Chambers and Business Link operators in the network are run by women. My congratulations goes to them and, once again, to Isabella for their outstanding work, personally and communally.

I will come to BCC's report on Women's Entrepreneurship shortly but I first wanted to remind us all of the broader context.

In the United Kingdom, we know that around 27% of all self-employed are women and that around 15% of SMEs are majority or wholly owned by women - a statistic we want to increase to at least 18% in the next 2 years. Indeed, it is estimated that there are around 700,000 majority women owned businesses in the UK generating around £130 billion turnover.

So, boosting women's enterprise is not simply a matter of equality of opportunity but an economic imperative, if we are to capitalise on the potential women have to offer in growing our regional and national economies.

Arguably, women represent the largest under-represented group in terms of their participation in enterprise. This represents a wealth of untapped talent and economic opportunity.

We can't afford to miss out on this so, to tap into this potential, we published our Strategic Framework for Women's Enterprise in May of last year. This is Government's long-term vision to create an environment and culture that encourages more women to start and grow businesses - and where every woman with the desire to start or grow a business will have access to appropriate support.

And the Framework continues to be the catalyst for the development of women's enterprise across England providing inspiration and strategic coordination of activity. I would like to share a flavour of its impact across the regions to date:

I am pleased to report that women's enterprise development is gaining an increasingly prominent profile across all nine English regions.

The RDAs have an important leadership role and the vital access to support offered by the Business Link network.

It is pleasing to hear, for example, of Business Link Hertfordshire's plans to become a centre of excellence for women's enterprise support offer leadership development programmes to women in business, pre-start confidence and personal development and one-to-one mentoring. This responds directly to the requirements of our Framework and, more importantly, to the real needs of female entrepreneurs.

And there is a diverse range of supportive initiatives up and running across the country - for example, the Asian-e Women in Enterprise project, based in the West Midlands, which focuses on preparing Asian women for enterprise by empowering them with the core skills they require.

And the Phoenix Fund-supported High Growth/High Inclusion Programme which offers intensive support to women start-ups with high-growth potential - a Women's Business Development Agency and University of Warwick Science Park partnership.

And Lynne Franks' plans to develop her SEED programme nationally to support women entrepreneurs by linking the principles of personal growth with the practical tools of starting and running a business.

And at the level of the individual setting up business, isn't it good to hear of women like:

Helen Colley of Farmhouse Fare in Lancashire. Helen originally started a catering business from her home in rural Lancashire, but the phenomenal success of her traditional puddings spurred her to sell the original business several years ago in order to focus on manufacturing full-time. Farmhouse Fare now manufactures a premium range of individual and family size puddings for major supermarkets across the country, and is growing rapidly. Helen was one of the entrepreneurs who was asked to speak at the launch of the Strategic Framework last May with Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women - and in the intervening year, her business has more than quadrupled its turnover.

Or Janette Faherty. Janette is owner and Managing Director of TNG, based in Enfield, which employs over 450 full-time staff in 45 offices across the UK and provides training and consultancy services to meet the needs of individuals, companies and organisations. It also provides advice and counseling to those starting and growing their own businesses. Janette was in Sydney, Australia last month and won an award as one of the Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World.

These are just two of the inspirational role models feature in the BCC/GEM report.

Which leads me to the report itself - 'Achieving the Vision'.

One of the key recommendations in our Strategic Framework for Women's Enterprise was to improve data collection and increase the research base in the area of women's enterprise. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor - or GEM - is an important source of data and information on entrepreneurial activity in the UK and internationally, and I'm pleased that the UK GEM team has worked with BCC to develop today's report.

'Achieving the Vision' is set in the context of 'a year on' from the launch of the Strategic Framework. It gives us a fascinating insight to women's entrepreneurship in the UK - highlighting current successes as well as future challenges.

The report highlights the recent increases in female entrepreneurial activity across many of the English regions.

The research shows that female businesses are often more innovative, collaborative and networked and there is evidence to show that they are also becoming more export-orientated.

A unique feature of the report is the inclusion of ten case studies featuring women entrepreneurs from Chambers of Commerce across the UK. They all have inspiring business stories to tell. And role models are important. Lack of role models is often cited as one of the reasons too few young women aspire to run their own businesses. We need to encourage more successful women, whether they are running micro-enterprises or large corporations, to become advocates for enterprise.

This is particularly important in the area of enterprise education. It's worth noting that although girls have overtaken boys in many subject areas at school, college and university, men with degrees are still twice as likely to set up a business as women with degrees. How much more inspiring to have a real-life woman entrepreneur to act as role model or even mentor to young women than simply a lesson - and I speak as an ex-business studies teacher!

We must also ensure that women take advantage of business training and learning opportunities wherever possible. Lack of skills, or, sometimes a perception of lack of skills, is often mooted by women as a reason for not starting an enterprise. 

There must be encouragement and effective outreach, therefore, by Business Link, the LSC, women's enterprise initiatives and many others to help women access the learning opportunities, which exist in their communities and further a field. Like to thank the Learning and Skills Council for their invaluable sponsorship of the work behind today's event.

Access to finance is still one of the key barriers for many women and the report shows that women don't seek external finance for their businesses at the same level of their male counterparts. But, optimistically, it also shows that when women do apply for external sources of finance, they tend to be successful. This appears to indicate untapped potential for banks and financial institutions to do more business with women-owned enterprises It is excellent news that the British Bankers Association and the Bank of England will continue to provide us with the comparative facts about finance for women and others trying to start or grow their own businesses here in UK And it is encouraging to hear that the British Bankers Association is in the process of organising a seminar on accessing finance for female entrepreneurs in conjunction with the Government's Small Business Service.

Networking and networks play a key role in business development and the report recommends gathering more information on networks and on how women use them, using the Chambers to share and disseminate the good practice, which already exists.

This is one of the policy recommendations contained in the report. We welcome the recommendations and look forward to further dialogue and collaboration with BCC and its partners in taking them forward.

Despite very good progress in the year since the Strategic Framework was launched, we recognise that there still major challenges ahead if we are to substantially increase the level of women's entrepreneurship in the UK and we very much appreciate BCC's contribution to this effort.

We have a real opportunity now to use this report to build on the Strategic Framework activity already underway to achieve our shared objectives - more and better support and training leading to more women making a reality of setting up in business. A step change - not only for those individual women, but for our enterprise culture and for the economic benefit of local, regional and national economies.

Thank you very much.