The Maple Review Report
Exclusion and Enterprise: Entrepreneurship, Poverty and Breaking Down Barriers
The Maple Review is an independent, government-backed review into the barriers to entrepreneurship caused by economic deprivation.
Co-chaired by Blair McDougall MP, Minister for Small Business, Grace Graham, Founder of WorkSpa, and Michelle Ovens CBE, Founder and CEO of Small Business Britain, the Review examines the current landscape and sets out key recommendations for Government, financial services and business support organisations to ensure entrepreneurship is accessible to everyone, regardless of starting point.
About the Report
The Maple Review brings together one of the largest evidence bases to date on entrepreneurship among people who have experienced economic hardship. It draws on:
- A national survey of over 600 entrepreneurs from a low-income background
- Focus groups and 1:1 interviews with entrepreneurs from across the UK
- Extensive Evidence submissions from organisations in this space
The evidence shows that financial exclusion, digital poverty, confidence deficits and fragmented business support are not separate challenges; together they can block business viability at the earliest stages:
- 63% of founders report lacking the personal savings to invest in their business
- 60% face uncertainty around cash flow
- 56% say low confidence negatively impacted their business
- 50% did not know how to access finance when starting up
Against a backdrop of 14.3 million people living in poverty in the UK, the Review calls for a fundamental shift in how entrepreneurship policy is designed and delivered: away from a system that rewards those who already have resources, towards one that actively builds confidence and resilience among those starting from the least.
Key Recommendations
The Maple Review sets out eight practical recommendations for government, corporate partners and the business support community:
- Introduce a National Public–Private Business Skills Guarantee for Secondary Schools – ensuring every young person has access to business skills, role models and entrepreneurial pathways before leaving education, starting with the most economically deprived areas and reaching all state secondary schools by 2030.
- Create a National Micro-Capital System for Asset-Poor Founders – establishing micro-loans as core economic infrastructure to unlock viability for founders starting without savings, assets or a safety net.
- Reform Welfare-to-Enterprise Transitions – redesigning welfare and self-employment rules so founders are not forced to take unsustainable risks before their businesses are viable.
- Make Financial Confidence a Core Part of Enterprise Support – treating cash flow, pricing and compliance as essential infrastructure for survival and growth, not a “soft” add-on.
- Fund Digital Inclusion as Economic Infrastructure – ensuring all founders can access the digital tools, connectivity and skills now essential to running a business.
- Invest in Long-Term Mentoring and Peer Networks – shifting from short-term, transactional interventions towards sustained support delivered by people with lived experience.
- Adopt Strengths-Based, Trauma-Informed Enterprise Support – redesigning enterprise systems to reduce fear, complexity and stigma.
- Target Enterprise Interventions at Those Most Excluded – explicitly designing and funding support to reach women, single mothers, Disabled founders and people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
