The UK Government has announced the launch of a new scheme aimed at supporting female entrepreneurs and increasing the number of women-led businesses.

Chaired by Anne Boden, CEO and Founder of Starling Bank, the ‘Taskforce on Women-Led High-Growth Enterprises’ aims to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030.

At present, only one-in-three UK entrepreneurs is a woman – a gender gap equivalent to 1.1 million missing businesses.

Similarly, male-led SMEs are five times more likely to scale up to £1 million turnover compared to female-led SMEs.

To address this growing issue, members of the taskforce, which includes some of the UK’s top women in business, will use their expertise and connections to work with organisations across the country to support the government’s goal of increasing the number of female entrepreneurs.

Boden said the taskforce will also place a strong focus on driving change in the area of growth capital, broaden access to finance for female entrepreneurs and provide a “blueprint for all entrepreneurs to follow” in future.

She said: “More women than ever are starting new businesses and many of them are scaling-up their companies.

“The Taskforce aims to give women entrepreneurs the tools to take their businesses to the next level: access to finance and growth capital, technology adoption and leadership skills.”

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Notably, the taskforce builds on the work of the Rose Review, which found that breaking down barriers for women entrepreneurs could boost the economy by £250bn.

Launching the scheme, Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz Truss, said: “This country can only grasp its full potential by ensuring everyone, regardless of their background or where they live, has the opportunity to succeed.

“We want women to be at the heart of the recovery effort, and we’ll do that by helping more women start a business, by getting them into higher paid work, by focusing on skills.”

The launch of the taskforce follows a raft of initiatives announced on International Women’s Day to boost employment opportunities for women.

This included a pay transparency pilot scheme to help businesses attract and retain female employees.

Evidence shows listing a salary range on job adverts and not asking applicants to disclose salary history enables women to negotiate pay on a fairer basis.

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