The report analyses the specific barriers facing BAME businesses and entrepreneurs from reaching their full potential, by offering policy direction to government agencies on multiple levels, as well as prompting financial providers to alter their behaviour account for community and entrepreneur-specific needs.
Key policy directions that current or future governments may want to consider:
- The collection (and publication) of better-quality data by government (including relevant state agencies).
- A review of past EMB policy success and failure.
- Taking stock of the existing EMB support landscape.
- Develop a new coherent plan for supporting EMBs, within a wider strategic approach to entrepreneurship.
- As part of the new strategic approach identify a clearer and more consistent role for local economic bodies (e.g., LEPs) towards EMBs based upon providing incentives to LEPs to foster effective support measures in their areas.
- Taking steps to widen access to finance by:
• Building on the lessons from the past and the findings from the stock taking exercise and improving efforts (by relevant public and private sector bodies) to reach out to nascent entrepreneurs and trading businesses in minority communities about accessing finance.
• Encouraging more competition in retail banking. - Exploring the possibility of adapting industry lending standards so they are more sensitive to different socio-economic and cultural circumstances.
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