APPG for Entrepreneurship Digest: September 2021

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship was set up to encourage, support and promote entrepreneurship in the UK. One of the ways we do this is by making sure Parliamentarians are kept up-to-date with the latest research on entrepreneurship and innovation.

If I was forced to pick out an essential read for every MP, Baroness, or Lord on entrepreneurship in the UK, then I’d probably pick the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s UK Report. Each year, it provides a clear picture of the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

This year’s update was particularly interesting for a few reasons. First, entrepreneurship will play a key role in the economic recovery. Second, some data (i.e. Companies House registrations) suggested that we saw a bit of an entrepreneurial renaissance with more companies than usual being founded during the pandemic, which was surprising.

Before the pandemic, GEM’s research found entrepreneurial activity was at a high. Just under one in ten (9.9%) of us was engaged in some sort of entrepreneurial activity. Social distancing, lockdowns, and the like appear to have put a dampener on that with total entrepreneurial activity falling by close to a quarter. A decline in nascent entrepreneurship, when someone first tries to turn their idea into reality, was the key driver of the decline.

There are, however, silver linings when you look to the future. More people expressed the intention of starting a business in 2020 than in previous years, from 11% in 2019 to 16.2%. On top of that, the share of those agreeing that starting a business would be a good career choice in 2020 also jumped significantly from 58% to 75% of those surveyed.

The report also highlighted some of the key disparities in entrepreneurship. Women run businesses at 68% the rate of men. This was an improvement on past years but driven more by fewer men starting businesses, rather than more women.

Ethnic minority entrepreneurship is a key interest for many members of the APPG for Entrepreneurship and many will have been curious about the impact of the pandemic upon it. Interestingly, and perhaps surprisingly, the rate of entrepreneurial activity among ethnic minorities remained strong at 14.1% compared to 6.1% for the white ethnic population. Elsewhere, research finds that despite their high rate of entrepreneurship, ethnic minority communities face major barriers when scaling their businesses and remain under-represented among high-growth equity-backed businesses.

This is just a taster. The annual study also has important information about attitudes toward entrepreneurship, whether or not the UK is a conducive environment for entrepreneurship, and more. You can check it out here.

Green Entrepreneurship

At The Entrepreneurs Network we are launching a new Forum: the Green Entrepreneurship Forum. At 10am on 30th September we’ll hold our launch event. Any MPs or Peers who would like to speak or attend should get in touch with Katrina Sale.

Calls for Evidence

This week saw the Call for Evidence for our research into the Sharing Economy close. I’ve been reviewing the thought-provoking submissions and they’ll help form the APPG’s upcoming report.

We still have two more Calls for Evidence Open.

First, we are looking at entrepreneurship within the UK’s Space sector. We want to know how the UK can best support startups and scaleups in the space sector. The call closes on October 8th.

Second, we are looking at levelling up. We want to better understand how we can ‘level up’ the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystems and promote job creation across the UK. The call closes on November 3rd.

We want to hear from both entrepreneurs and researchers. So if you have any insight to offer we would really appreciate a submission.

In Parliament

In a debate on the Co-operative Purchase of Companies, Christina Rees MP (Labour) endorsed the idea that workers should be able to buy-out companies at a risk of closure. She said: “Such employee buy-outs can hardwire resilience and productivity into our economy by preserving productive businesses and giving employees greater motivation and incentive through their stake in the organisation.”

There was a debate on Careers Guidance in Schools. It was generally agreed that business owners and entrepreneurs should be more involved with this.

Sally-Ann Hart MP (Conservative) said that Careers Guidance is an opportunity for volunteers to come into schools: “Lawyers, business owners, doctors or people who work in the Foreign Office can come in and speak to those schools in their local areas and show children what is out there for them to do.”

Mark Jenkinson MP (Conservative) agreed with her and said that we have been increasing the number of entrepreneurs coming into schools: “More than 3,300 business professionals from local businesses are working with schools and colleges as enterprise advisers to strengthen employer links. Almost 3.3 million young people are now having regular encounters with employers, which is up 70% in two years.”

Esther McVey (Conservative) added to this, and quoted Clare Haywood, the chair of the Chershire and Warrington LEP, who said: “We need to inspire young people about an array of jobs, new emerging jobs, roles they might never have been thought of in tech, digital, life science, jobs of the future. We need schools to engage with the business community who are alert to these future opportunities and have staff who can talk passionately and excitedly about these jobs.”