Scotland is heading into the 2026 Holyrood elections with a brutally crowded in‑tray. Fragile health and care services, stretched schools, a housing squeeze, global shocks from war and tariffs, and resurgent energy prices are all jostling for attention.

In this environment, a £50 million ask for women’s business centres might sound like a worthy accessory rather than a frontline priority, but it isn't.

Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) is making a hard‑headed economic case that this relatively modest investment would support more than half of Scotland’s start‑ups, shore up a leaking enterprise pipeline and unlock returns that help, not hinder, the funding of public services. If ministers are serious about economic growth, then support for female-led businesses is not a distraction from the "real issues", but rather one of the cheapest ways to strengthen the tax base that pays for them.

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That was the argument playing out yesterday at the cross-party group on women in enterprise where Corinne Goble, chief executive of the Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC), set out the evidence from the US.

"For every taxpayer dollar that is invested, new businesses created $6 in revenue," Ms Goble said. "An additional $7.50 in private capital is lent, resulting in $15 in economic activity. There’s hardly a better investment anywhere.”

WES has done the rough translation. Applying that 15:1 ratio to Scotland’s long‑promised £50m women’s business centre programme produces indicative returns of around £300m in new business revenue, £375m in private capital for women‑led firms, and about £750m in total economic activity.

In an era when the Scottish Government is wrestling with a large fiscal gap, WES argues that fixing the women‑led business pipeline could unlock up to £17 billion a year in extra economic activity – a sum that would cover a sizeable chunk of Scotland’s notional deficit. Even after heavily discounting those projections, the direction of travel is clear: better outcomes for women‑led firms expand the economic pie that funds core public services.

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Women lead an estimated 54% of start‑ups in Scotland, but government‑backed surveys and WES’s own analysis shows that the number of those which employ staff has fallen sharply from about 20% to roughly 16% in the span of just a year. In other words, the system is relatively good at encouraging women to start businesses, but is failing at helping them survive and grow.

WES chief executive Carolyn Currie says that having such a large and disproportionate number of women-led start-ups failing at this hurdle is "unproductive for our economy". Public money and effort are being poured into start‑up activity – from incubators to innovation challenges – only for a large share of women‑led ventures to drop out just as they should be contributing jobs, investment and tax receipts.

The commitment on the women's business centre was first made in the Scottish Government’s 2021–22 programme for government and was restated in equality impact work on Covid business support, but three years on the programme has yet to be activated. In an open letter last year, WES acknowledged the fiscal squeeze but argued that further delay could not be justified as the investment would “significantly contribute to national prosperity”.

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During a recent visit to the US, WES signed a memorandum of understanding with the AWBC that will lead to practical collaboration on what works, what doesn't, and how a Scottish network could be designed to fit local realities. Yesterday's cross-party group meeting was one of the early fruits of that partnership.

Also addressing yesterday's meeting were Jill McAlpine, speaking about her work with the Highland Women Growth Summit 2026, and Ailsa Clark of social enterprise support organisation InspirAlba, who set out the latest research on women in social and community‑led enterprise.

Rural founders, social entrepreneurs and community enterprises are part of the same story of under‑used talent and under‑capitalised ideas. If Scotland's political leaders are serious about community wealth building and regional resilience, a women’s enterprise strategy must reach into these areas.

The obvious pushback is that, however strong the case, money spent here is money not spent on something else. With teacher shortages, hospital backlogs and social housing waiting lists in the headlines, can Scotland afford to ring‑fence £50m for women’s business centres?

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Two points blunt that objection. The first is scale. Spread over several years and across a small network of centres, the annual cost of the WES proposal is tiny relative to total Scottish Government spending or even the capital budgets for a single large hospital or road project.

The second is leverage. If the US evidence holds even partially in Scotland, that £50m brings in multiples of private capital and sustainable business activity. That is money circulating in local economies, creating jobs, paying wages and generating income and corporation tax that can, in turn, support education, healthcare and housing.

The WES manifesto is not asking politicians to privilege women founders over schoolchildren or patients. It is asking them to stop treating women‑led enterprise as a side‑issue and instead recognise it as one of the few levers that can simultaneously grow the economy and tilt it in a fairer direction. It is also about using scarce public money where it works hardest.

The 2026 election will test whether parties are prepared to do that. WES’s demands are specific and measurable: activate the £50m women’s business centre commitment with a clear timetable; embed equality impact assessments and targeted design into mainstream business support; and provide multi‑year funding so centres and founders can plan. Any manifesto that signs up to “inclusive growth” but ducks those concrete steps will be asking voters to take its economic rhetoric on trust.

© Herald Scotland