Female founders will get a new scale-up programme and the British Business Bank will double its commitments to women-led businesses and funds to £200m, Chancellor John Healey announced in his Budget on Wednesday.
The measures form part of a wider package aimed at those “building the companies of the future in Britain”, in the Chancellor’s words, which also includes a 10 per cent Capital Gains Tax rate for founders, a higher trading allowance and living-cost support for young entrepreneurs.
Healey referred to the Women in Tech Taskforce as he confirmed the female founders programme. The taskforce is a government advisory group set up to tackle the barriers that stop women entering, staying and leading in the technology sector.
According to the Budget 2026 document published by the Treasury, women make up 21 per cent of the digital workforce. The document says new voluntary Tech Forward and Inclusive Investment Standards, led by the taskforce, will help to tackle the barriers women face in raising capital and working in technology.
It describes a scale-up programme to support women founders across the UK, which it says builds on the existing Investing in Women Code and Invest in Women Taskforce initiatives.
The Treasury also states that the British Business Bank has developed a pipeline of commitments to women-led funds of more than £100m. That includes first-time fund managers identified through Investor Pathways Capital, which the Budget document says tackles the barriers faced in accessing finance and investor networks.
The state-owned bank was among the backers when the Invest in Women Taskforce secured more than £250m for female entrepreneurs in 2024, alongside Barclays, M&G, Morgan Stanley, Visa Foundation, BGF and Aviva.
The Women in Tech Taskforce was launched in December 2025 by Liz Kendall as Technology Secretary. It is co-led by Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon, founder of Stemettes, who was appointed Women in Tech Envoy.
At the launch, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said female-founded start-ups receive 5.9 times less funding than male-founded ones. It put the cost to the economy of women leaving the tech sector or changing jobs at an estimated £2bn to £3.5bn a year.
Funding has featured in other recent research on women in business. In a survey of 1,000 female entrepreneurs for National Women’s Enterprise Week, published in June, a lack of funding and low visibility were the joint top challenges to growing a business from founders’ current locations, each cited by 27 per cent.
The new founders’ relief will apply a 10 per cent Capital Gains Tax rate to lifetime gains of up to £10m from 6 April 2027, according to the Budget document. It sits alongside a cut in the lifetime limit for Business Asset Disposal Relief from £1m to £500,000, as Business Matters reported on Wednesday.
The trading allowance, the amount that can be earned tax-free from a new venture, will triple from £1,000 to £3,000 from the same date. A young entrepreneurs’ allowance will cover a year of living costs for young founders.
Healey told Parliament: “I believe when business founders take a risk, build an exceptional company, create wealth for Britain, we should recognise that success and keep those people here to invest again.”
Michelle Ovens CBE, founder and chief executive of Small Business Britain, said: “Support for female entrepreneurs through the British Business Bank is also an important step towards unlocking the enormous potential of women in business.”
She added: “It is encouraging to see the Chancellor recognise the huge contribution our 5.7 million small businesses make to the UK economy, and the importance of backing entrepreneurs across the country.”
On the trading allowance, Ovens said: “With more people starting businesses as side hustles, we need to make it easier for those ambitions to become thriving businesses.”
“Today is a positive step forward, and we must keep working to ensure everyone, whatever their background, has the opportunity to start and grow a business,” she said.
