Committee publication · Correspondence · 3 September 2025 · HC 711
Correspondence from the Minister for Investment, Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury and the Minister for Services, Small Business and Exports, Department for Business and Trade, dated 20.08.2025
From: Women and Equalities Committee
Inquiry: Female entrepreneurship
Summary
The Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury respond to written questions from the Women and Equalities Committee on women's entrepreneurship. The ministers outline government initiatives including the British Business Bank's £400 million Investor Pathways Capital scheme targeting female fund managers, regional expansion of the Regional Angels Programme with £340 million additional funding, and partnerships with organisations like UK Export Finance to support women-led businesses. They decline to introduce tax-deductible childcare costs, citing distributional concerns.
Key findings
- British Business Bank's new £400 million Investor Pathways Capital initiative will target at least 50% of investment to female fund managers and seed smaller funds to support businesses with lower revenues.
- Regional Angels Programme has invested £180 million into over 700 businesses since March 2020 with 85% deployed outside London; allocated an additional £340 million expansion expected to create 10,500 new jobs.
- Around 20% of founders in Regional Angels Programme-backed firms are women (21.8% in London and South East, 18.4% in rest of UK), higher than the 15% baseline for all-female founding teams from angel investors.
- Government declines to make childcare costs tax-deductible, citing concerns that tax reliefs disproportionately benefit higher-rate taxpayers.
- UK Export Finance committed to supporting underrepresented businesses, supported 83% of SMEs outside London in 2024/2025 and is developing a 10-15 business accelerator programme targeting women-led and ethnic minority-led entrepreneurs.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Baroness Gustafsson of Chesterton, Gareth Thomas MP, British Business Bank, UK Export Finance, Invest in Women Taskforce, Roxanne Goodman, Tech UK
Notable line
“… one of the best predictors of investment into diverse founders is the diversity of the investment committee taking the decisions.”
Key Quotes
“We made reference during the evidence session to a future announcement that we were not yet able to share, which would address this issue.”
“The initiative will target at least 50% of investment going to female fund managers, on the basis that one of the best predictors of investment into diverse founders is the diversity of the investment committee taking the decisions.”
“The Regional Angels Programme has been allocated an additional £340m over the Spending Review period – a 30% uplift to improve access to early-stage equity.”
“While the government keeps all tax policy under review, there are no current plans to change the tax treatment of childcare costs.”
“… tax reliefs and exemptions are typically of greatest benefit to those paying higher rates of tax. Individuals with income below the higher rate threshold would benefit less”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗