The number of people rejecting office life and setting up at home is set to double within ten years.

A study by pollster Mori for Alodis, the UK's first independent service for self-employed professionals, found more and more skilled workers were giving up the "rat race".

It estimated the 1.6 million self-employed professionals in the UK, who create £65 billion a year for the UK economy, would rise to 3.2 million within a decade, accounting for 12 per cent of the working population.

And yet 75 per cent of those who had taken the plunge had set up with little or no Government support, and 69 per cent had had no help from their bank. On the plus side, 78 per cent of those surveyed said becoming self-employed had improved the quality of their life and 72 per cent said they had become more entrepreneurial.

Alodis has written to Patricia Hewitt, the minister with responsibility for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), highlighting the findings.

Julia Hutchison, head of Alodis, said: "Politicians long ago identified SMEs as a vital part of the UK economy, but they are doing nothing for the two-thirds of them who are sole traders."