The Cedar Review Report

From Displacement to Business

---

Refugee entrepreneurs are building businesses across the UK, employing staff, paying tax and supplying their communities, using skills this country has yet to make full use of. The Cedar Review: From Displacement to Business looks at the barriers standing between entrepreneurial ambition and success, and how unlocking this potential could contribute an estimated £2 billion to the UK economy.

The Cedar Review Report

---

This independent review has been exploring how refugee entrepreneurs across the UK are already contributing economically, and what’s needed to scale that success.

Led by Co-Chairs Michelle Ovens CBE and Anil Qasemi, the Cedar Review sets out to challenge how we see refugee entrepreneurs and demonstrate that supporting refugee entrepreneurship is a clear economic opportunity for the UK.

About the Report

---

The Cedar Review draws on new survey data, in-depth focus groups and real-world case studies to explore how refugee entrepreneurship is helping to:

• Create jobs and employ local people
• Contribute to the UK economy and national tax revenues
• Bring new products, ideas and international perspectives to the market
• Enable individuals to rebuild their lives, restore confidence and establish independence

But while the potential is real, many refugee founders face systemic barriers around permission to work, uncertain status, access to finance, and fragmented support. The report shines a light on these barriers and sets out clear, practical recommendations for government, financial services and community organisations to act now.

Key Recommendations include:

---

• Amending Immigration Rules so permission to work includes self-employment (sole trader registration) and reducing the waiting period to six months
• Counting verified business activity as an economic contribution towards settlement
• Publishing a single, authoritative plain-language guide to starting a business in the UK
• Reforming credit and identity checks to accept alternative evidence of creditworthiness
• Building an accessible, coordinated funding ladder (spanning micro-grants to growth funding)
• Opening access to markets and supply chains through social value procurement
• Building a navigated, 12-month end-to-end support pathway with mentoring from people with shared experience
• Teaching the language of business alongside core ESOL modules

Letters from a Place

---

To accompany the report, the Review has also published a book of letters to showcase entrepreneur stories of success, lessons learned from the process, and advice to the next generation of refugee entrepreneurs.