Here's to your enterprise and success

EVERY week in Britain, 3,000 new businesses are started up, and last year saw the fastest rate of increase in self-employment for two decades.

Because of the benefits of economic stability, cuts in capital gains and corporation tax, and reforms to competition and insolvency laws, there are 100,000 more businesses in Britain today than in 1997.

Yet if Britain had the same proportion of people creating new businesses as in the US, we would have 1.8m additional businesses.

These businesses would be creating jobs and unlocking the potential of Britain's most rundown inner city areas, where the rate of business creation is currently one-third that of our more prosperous areas, and just one-tenth that of the US.

So it is vital we learn from America and rebuild a truly enterprising culture in Britain - rediscovering the British spirit of enterprise that made us one of the most inventive and creative industrial nations in the world. And we must open up these opportunities to all.

Creating an enterprise culture starts not in the boardroom, but in the classroom. A week ago, experts from Britain and America met in Boston to discuss how to get young people in schools inspired about enterprise.

When I was at school, no business ever came near the doors of our classroom.

But I am determined that - with new resources from next month's spending round - every school will be able to offer every pupil not just work experience, but five days of enterprise education, with enterprise advisers working in 1,000 schools in deprived areas.

Today, I will join top entrepreneurs, businesses and education organisations to launch a new campaign inspiring young people to believe in their own entrepreneurial potential and make their mark.

The campaign will culminate in November with the first national Enterprise Week, designed to excite and encourage young people to use their ingenuity and talent in business.

The week will showcase Britain's entrepreneurial talent and inspire young people in every region of the country. More than 2,000 young people from all over the world will compete in a 24-hour global enterprise challenge.

Shell LiveWIRE will showcase their 300 best young business start-ups. Britain's 100 fastest growing inner-city companies will be given awards and masterclasses in business.

Young people will attend classes given by business mentors, networking events and workshops with established business people, and there will be enterprise roadshows for students all over Britain.

Celebrating enterprise demands recognition as well as reward. In a fortnight, the Queen and other members of the Royal Family will be visiting the most outstanding examples of enterprise in each region, and we will be announcing a new Queen's Award for Enterprise.

And today, with support from the Daily Mail, I am launching two competitions to celebrate our nation's entrepreneurs.

Enterprising Britain will identify British cities or towns that have championed a culture of enterprise. Nominations from across the country will be unveiled during Enterprise Week, with Britain's first Capital Of Enterprise named next spring.

I congratulate the Daily Mail for setting up, in parallel, Enterprising Britons - a competition to find the nation's most outstanding enterprising individuals - with the winners crowned during Enterprise Week this autumn.

In these ways - inspiring the entrepreneurs of tomorrow and celebrating the successes of entrepreneurs today - I believe we can build a renewed spirit of enterprise in Britain.

Today, 55% of British people believe they have the skills to start up a business, compared to 40% in 2001. Thirty-nine% believe there are good start-up opportunities for them, compared with 18% only a few years ago.

Our goal must be to set free this ambition and talent, and to extend this enterprising spirit to all.

For too long, in too many areas, for too much of our recent past, enterprise has been seen as something for someone else, for a small elite. I want us to create a Britain of ambition, where what matters is not where you come from, but what you aspire to.

So opportunities for enterprise must be available in the highest unemployment areas as well as the most prosperous, to the redundant worker as well as the tycoon's son.

Run-down inner cities or derelict industrial estates should not be no-go areas for businesses, but places of opportunity - offering new choices, new recruits and new markets.

We know how much stronger our economy and our society will be if we release the dynamism, creativity and potential of all our people.

I believe that by working together, Government and businesses can build on our hard-won economic stability to foster an enterprise renaissance that will benefit us all.