Member Article

Revealed: The value of Newcastle’s women-led businesses

Research from NatWest has found that Newcastle’s women-led businesses contributed £49m to the UK’s economy and created an additional 2,600 jobs in 2015.

The research, undertaken in partnership with Development Economics, revealed that female entrepreneurs in Newcastle set up 1,400 businesses in 2015 alone. Female-led startups in the North East contributed £103m to the economy.

Female entrepreneurs contributed £3.15bn to the UK economy overall in 2015. However, despite a strong growth in female entrepreneurship overall since 2009, the number of women setting up a business in the UK still lags behind countries such as Canada and the US, costing the UK economy £1bn a year.

Alison Rose, Chief Executive of NatWest Corporate, Commercial & Private Banking, said: “We know entrepreneurs are vital to the economy, and it’s fantastic to see just how much women contribute, but it’s clear we need to do more to power this growth in the same way our global counterparts do.”

The research revealed that while the proportion of the UK’s female working population starting a business nearly doubled from 3.7% to 7.1% between 2009 and 2012, this has since tailed off, falling every year and standing at less than 5% in 2015.

This is supported by ONS data which shows the number of businesses started by women increased every year between 2006 and 2013 from 58,000 to 139,000, before falling to 116,000 in 2014 and to 126,000 in 2015.

Alison added: “At NatWest we have created numerous roles within the bank that are dedicated to providing tailored support for women to start up and succeed in business. It’s not simply about starting up, but supporting through all the business life stages.

“From introductions to relevant organisations to tangible day-to-day support, we want to go beyond providing financial services and help female entrepreneurs achieve their business ambitions.”

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