The future of funding for small business support

The future provision of funding for the delivery of small business support is uncertain. Following on from European Regional Development funding, the government plugged the funding gap with Shared Prosperity Funding, which is scheduled to end in March 2025.

Currently, there is no replacement provision, which means a discussion on this topic is required.

This event will explore potential future funding models for support provision and cover, among other topics:

• Whether this is a unique opportunity to create a public-private funding partnership with small businesses contributing to programme costs
• The potential for a national ‘minimum level’ of free support provision that small businesses access online, before onboarding into programmes tailored to their specific growth needs. Could this step end the ‘postcode lottery’ that exists, where businesses in different regions have different levels of access to support?
• How can we leverage technology to help ensure small businesses have easy access to support?

• What is the role of fintech innovation, such as Open Banking and Open Finance, in improving access to finance with other services for SMEs?
  

All meeting participants are reminded that this meeting must adhere to competition law rules and, as such, no confidential or commercially sensitive information should be shared directly or indirectly between competitors. Discussions will be limited to approved agenda items.

Strive UK is supporting the resilience of Britain’s entrepreneurs, connecting them with the advice, skills and tools to navigate the digital economy. To date, the initiative has had an impact on over 1 million entrepreneurs across the nation.

Enterprise Nation, a small business support platform and provider, is one of three delivery partners for the initiative. Our work includes convening business support organisations from across the ecosystem to share learnings and best practices, as well as explore new collaboration opportunities to deepen our collective impact management of the Strive Learning Network, which meets quarterly and brings together organisations involved in the delivery of enterprise support.

Strive UK has been funded by the Center for Inclusive Growth – Mastercard’s social impact arm.

Host or Publisher Enterprise Nation