Level playing field needed for ethnic minority firms

20/06/07 16:45

A new Ethnic Minority Business Task Force will encourage growth among black and ethnic minority (BME) firms and address the barriers that BME entrepreneurs are currently facing.

Small business minister Margaret Hodge today announced the launch of the task force, after a survey commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) found that ethnic minority businesses are finding it harder to access finance than white-owned firms.

The organisation will investigate the findings of the survey, which also found that ethnic minority-owned businesses pay higher bank loan charges than white-owned companies on average.

The gap between the amounts of business finance sought and the amounts agreed was also found to be significantly greater for Black African and Pakistani-owned businesses.

Margaret Hodge commented: "Over the next two years the new Task Force will propose ways to encourage more ethnic minority participation in enterprise. It will also reach out to potential entrepreneurs in under-represented BME groups, including ethnic minority women, looking to help remove the barriers to doing business which face them."

Tom Riordan, chief executive at Yorkshire Regional Development Agency Yorkshire Forward and deputy of the task force, added: "If the English regions are to achieve their economic potential, then we need to create the conditions for BME businesses to grow and prosper.

"To do so, we need to make sure that they have access to the same levels of support as any other business."

According to the DTI, there are an estimated 300,000 BME-run small businesses in the UK, contributing an estimated £20 billion per year to the UK economy.