Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2023/2024 report

25 Years and Growing

The United Kingdom’s score in the National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI) continues to fall, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2023/2024 Report, released today in Morocco.

As part of the research, national experts in the UK were asked to assess the country’s Entrepreneurship Framework Conditions (EFCs). These assessments are the basis for an economy’s GEM NECI score. In 2020, the overall quality of the UK entrepreneurial environment was rated as just satisfactory, with a score of 5.0. Since then, that overall quality score has declined slowly each year. The 2023 score of 4.6 places the United Kingdom 22nd of 49 economies.

Mark Hart, Professor of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, at Aston Business School and lead of GEM UK said “permanent non-borrowers remain a significant proportion of the SME population (31%) and small business leaders still complain that a lack of finance can hinder their growth ambitions and that they are still unsure of how to access appropriate finance.  We need to work harder on improvements to the all-round financing ecosystem integrating leadership and management support with a full range of suitable financing along the finance escalator.”