Spring Statement 2025

This afternoon, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves gave her Spring Statement. Read below for our team’s snap reaction to some of the main points concerning economic growth, innovation and entrepreneurship.

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On the revised growth forecasts
Eamonn Ives, Research Director at The Entrepreneurs Network, said:

“For a Government which regards growth as its central mission, today’s forecasts are the epitome of a mixed bag. Supporters of the Chancellor will point to the upward revisions to growth figures from 2027. These are fuelled by the Office for Budget Responsibility deciding it can now evaluate the estimated impact of Labour’s planning reforms – which it thinks could single-handedly raise growth by 0.5%.

“Detractors, however, will note that growth projections for 2026 were slashed in half – to an abysmal 1%. What’s more, even if subsequent years do see higher output than previously anticipated, Britain will nonetheless fail to break 2% annual GDP growth by the end of this Parliament. Contrary to the cheers of Labour backbenchers, that should be no cause for celebration from anyone. Furthermore, while the OBR has factored in the positive growth effects of planning reforms, it has not done the same for the forthcoming regulations promised in the Employment Rights Bill. Should this legislation slow down hiring or impose additional burdens on employers, we should only expect yet more changes to the forecasts – and not in a welcome direction.” 

On the additional investment pledged for defence capabilities
Anastasia Bektimirova, Head of Science and Technology at The Entrepreneurs Network, said:

“Today’s announcements signal recognition that our security landscape demands not just greater investment, but a fundamental transformation in how we deliver military capability. The £2.2 billion uplift for the Ministry of Defence, including investment towards technologies such as autonomous systems and AI-enabled capabilities, is welcome. The focus on bringing these innovative technologies to the frontline faster through UK Defence Innovation supported with £400 million ringfenced budget, scaling over time, is promising, as is the segmented procurement approach which could finally address the notoriously slow acquisition processes that have hampered our defence capabilities.

“But as always, the true test will be implementation. The new Defence Growth Board must include frontier expertise from the defence tech ecosystem, especially given the Government’s commitment to make it easier for startups to bring innovative technologies to the frontline at speed. Success will be measured not by announcements or budgets, but by whether our frontline forces can rapidly deploy cutting-edge capabilities that replace the dated systems they’ve been relying on for far too long.”

On the announcement on tax reliefs for entrepreneurs and investors
Eamonn Ives, Research Director at The Entrepreneurs Network, said:

“Britain is Europe’s leading entrepreneurial ecosystem but it didn’t get that mantle by chance. It took years of careful policy making to incubate an environment where founders, investors and alike can take bets on launching dynamic startups and growing them to scale. Longstanding and globally revered tax reliefs like the Enterprise Management Incentives Scheme, the Enterprise Investment Scheme and the Venture Capital Trust Scheme all fall firmly into this category – supporting not only home-grown entrepreneurs but also enticing foreign talent from around the world to choose Britain as their place to build. 

“The Government’s announcement to convene a series of roundtables to examine these reliefs is therefore encouraging. Though they have proven successful to date, aspects of some now require inspection – not least around limits and thresholds for qualifying companies which have stayed static since their inception. With minor tweaks, we can ensure they continue to deliver for our precious entrepreneurial ecosystem, and by extension, the whole of the British economy.”

On the consultation on R&D tax relief
Philip Salter, Founder of The Entrepreneurs Network, said:

“For many founders of the UK’s most innovative companies, delays and uncertainty around the UK’s R&D tax credits regime have hit them hard. While the Government has made efforts to improve the system, more work is needed, with the announced consultation offering an opportunity to improve the system.

“However, the consultation is too focused on widening the use of advance assurance. While this can provide certainty to businesses, it’s not without an administrative burden – both for businesses and the government – and fails to address the more serious problems in the system: delays, errors, and a lack of avenues to reach HMRC.”

On the continuation of Making Tax Digital
Philip Salter, Founder of The Entrepreneurs Network, said:

“Continuing the rollout of Making Tax Digital is the correct decision from the Government. This will nudge Britain’s businesses towards increasing their productivity, as it reduces the time entrepreneurs devote to dealing with tax, while minimising inaccuracies. As a next step, the Government now needs a solid plan to present at the next Budget for the four million taxpayers who have income below the £20,000 threshold.”

Three Big Ideas #26

Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.

In this week, Eamonn Ives calls for the Digital Services Tax to be scrapped, Anastasia Bektimirova examines what ‘Everythingism’ is and how it impedes good policymaking, and Jessie May Green looks into the innovators trying to solve water scarcity.

Winds of Change

We’re excited to introduce Perennial Gale – the fresh new home for our Friday newsletter, now on Substack. The name draws on economist Joseph Schumpeter’s idea of capitalism as a “perennial gale of creative destruction” – a reminder that economic progress relies on the energy of entrepreneurs who drive innovation forward.

In this edition, we discuss how we continue to shape the debate around supporting Britain’s next wave of high-growth businesses. From the Prime Minister’s stated support for entrepreneurs to the government’s latest attempt at smarter regulation, the momentum is building for real policy change. We’re calling on entrepreneurs like you to tell us about your biggest challenges so that we can feed them directly into policy discussions.

In addition, we share insights from our upcoming events on the Spring Statement and inheritance tax, plus a look at the ongoing development of the National Data Library (and why it matters for data-driven businesses). We’ve also launched The Entrepreneurs Network Advisory to help businesses navigate complex regulatory landscapes and ensure their voices are heard.

Three Big Ideas #25

Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.

In this week, Eamonn Ives argues the case for technological solutions over behavioural adaptations, Anastasia Bektimirova weighs in on a debate about entreprenerial scholars, and Philip Salter explains why the path of liberalism is the one he’d prefer to take.

Login Required

Phew! What a week in the world of policy. Even without Trump’s tariffs, there is more than enough fodder to write about – from welfare reforms, to growing concerns over the Employment Rights Bill, to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill being revealed, and half a dozen other things besides.

We’ll get into each of these at some point. But today, I want to write about One Login. Well, more precisely, I want to encourage you to read James O’Malley’s excellent article on why the new GOV.UK login system is the first step in a radical transformation of the British state.

Inspired by the successful Government Digital Service (GDS), established in 2011, the UK has now launched a new Digital Centre of Government, bringing various digital initiatives under one coherent strategy. O’Malley contrasts this careful evolution with Elon Musk’s “bull in a china shop approach” to DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency).

One Login aims to consolidate hundreds of government logins into a single credential. Currently accessible for services like veteran ID cards and DBS checks, major services such as Universal Credit and HMRC remain separate for cautionary reasons.

For businesses, this means a lot less bureaucracy. For example, as I’ve been writing for years now, in Estonia it is estimated that these sorts of reforms save business owners around 12 million hours every year. (Given there are around 36 British companies for every Estonian one, an – admittedly very crude – estimate for time that could be saved here would be approximately 430 million hours per year!)  

A key ambition is the ‘once-only’ principle, meaning you’ll only have to submit your information once, leaving government responsible for updating records across departments automatically – similar to the existing ‘Tell Us Once’ service used for death notifications. This is, as I wrote in our essay collection endorsed by Tony Blair and Stripe’s Patrick Collison, “the way of the future.”

Do read O’Malley’s piece to get the full breadth of the potential. But ambition is one thing, and reality is another. The first hurdle will be ensuring these aspirations aren’t dented by the upcoming Spending Review.

n+1 = innovation
Following the announcement that former Science Minister Lord Willetts has been appointed as Chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO), this week was perfect timing to publish my interview with John Fingleton CBE to get his perspectives on how Britain should go about regulating markets in a way that encourages more innovation and economic growth.

I first heard John speak when he was head of the Office of Fair Trading (the precursor to the Competition and Markets Authority) and have followed his insights on all things regulation for years.

Our conversation covered what it would take for RIO to hit the ground running – how it should work with other bodies, how regulators can embrace risk in a risk-averse society, and how regulators should approach the AI sector.

Sense on Security
We’re delighted to welcome Julia O’Toole, Co-CEO of MyCena, as an Adviser. Combining mathematics and neuroscience, she spent over 20 years researching cybersecurity gaps, creating a pioneering mathematical model that eliminates human-managed credentials and prevents credential-based attacks. Her expertise combines advanced encryption, cybersecurity practices, and practical business solutions for digital safety.

Julia thinks: “If the UK government aligned their policies with innovative companies’ needs, improved connections between entrepreneurs and resources, and optimised procurement and grant processes, it could enable more technological advancement, driving growth, jobs, and competitiveness.”

We couldn’t agree more. Drop me a message if you’re keen to join as an Adviser.

One More Week
Our migration of this newsletter to Substack will be delayed by a week, as it turns out too many of you receive our newsletter to do this without Substack first doing a human review. You should get a friendly welcome email confirming this. If you want to get ahead of the game though, simply subscribe here.

Three Big Ideas #24

Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.

In this week, Eamonn Ives implores smart entrepreneurs to work on reducing the cost of far-UVC, Anastasia Bektimirova unpacks a new report that criticises Whitehall’s siloed approach to Industrial Strategy, and Jessie May Green asks whether President Trump’s DEI pushback will ripple across to the UK.

n+1 = innovation

In our latest interview, Philip Salter spoke to John Fingleton CBE, Chair of Fingleton and former CEO of the Office for Fair Trading (the precursor to the Competition and Markets Authority). They discussed how to make a success of the new Regulatory Innovation Office, how to reform competition policy to support growth, and much more.

New Wave

I’m delighted to share that today we’ve launched our Young Entrepreneurs Forum. It aims to connect and empower young people building incredible things across the world, and influence governments to create better enabling environments for young entrepreneurs.

For the Forum’s inaugural year, we will focus primarily on identifying solutions to barriers preventing a greater culture of entrepreneurship among young people here in the UK. We will do this by hosting meetup events for young entrepreneurs to gather their thoughts and insights, which will ultimately feed into a policy report and be launched later this year in the Houses of Parliament.

Needless to say, this won’t be headed by an old-timer like myself. We’re grateful to Sean Kohli for chairing and supporting us on this project. Sean is an undergraduate student studying at UCLA and also a General Partner of an early-stage fund spun out of the Why You Should Join newsletter, which highlights early-stage startups on track to becoming generational companies. He also manages a growth and opportunity fund in Luxembourg, backing transformative later-stage startups, and serves on the board of Team Vitality, Europe’s leading esports organisation.

Sean’s involvement stems from a deep-rooted commitment to elevating the UK’s startup ecosystem, shaped by his experiences as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist in the US. In the wake of a new AI-driven epoch, he believes that the UK must accelerate its pace of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit by empowering our brightest and most ambitious minds to build this country’s future. We wholeheartedly agree.

Young people can join the Forum here. By joining you’ll be invited to our meetups, be invited to share your views to shape the final report and be invited to the launch in the Houses of Parliament.

To be clear, this isn’t just for those who have registered a business. We also want young people from the UK and around the world who have built tech, started charities or run campaigns. This is all about ambition.

If you take nothing else from today’s newsletter, forward this onto the most ambitious young people know.

Our country needs them!

Down to Business
Our country also needs more companies exporting and more innovators procuring. We know both these areas of business are replete with hurdles.

That’s why we’re hosting two online meetings with the Department for Business and Trade on Overcoming Barriers to Procurement and Overcoming Barriers to Exporting. If you have experience of either, request a place today.

Data with Destiny
Last week, our joint paper with the Tony Blair Institute set out a delivery roadmap for the National Data Library (NDL).

Now it’s your turn to tell us how to make the NDL as useful as it can possibly be. Are there existing but inaccessible government data, or new datasets that should be created that would advance your work? What supporting services would help you work effectively with these datasets? What bottlenecks most limit your progress?

We want to understand the real barriers you face. If you work with data in academia or the private sector, and think that the NDL could help your work, tell us.

No More Monkeying
As many of you will have spotted, we’re doing a lot more on Substack. As of next week, this newsletter will come to you via Substack (currently it’s delivered via MailChimp).

Apart from a couple of design changes, you won’t notice the difference. Nevertheless, it’s good manners to let you know, so if you would like to be taken off the list or have any questions or concerns please let me know.

Community Pillars
With a healthy dose of trepidation, we’ve created our first open group on our WhatsApp community. It’s to discuss “how to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business”. You can join here. Just to note, your phone number will be visible to others in the community.

Separately, Advisers and Patrons should join this private group, and Supporters should join this private group. Find out more about becoming an Adviser, Patron or Supporter here. If you’re unsure if you’re one, drop me an email.

If this is all too confusing, you can just join the Community here. Within the community, nobody else can see your number unless you are already in their contacts.

ChatEMA
Finally, our good friends at Enterprise Nation have recently launched Ask EMA – an AI-powered personal business assistant, designed to provide instant, personalised business support whenever you need it. Play with it here.

Three Big Ideas #23

Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.

In this week, Eamonn Ives questions whether culture really can explain the economic gap between Britain and the US, Philip Salter weighs up the case for and against banning non-competes and Anastasia Bektimirova makes a plea for greater diversity in funding innovation.

Building Britain’s National Data Library

Public services in the UK are drowning in data but starved of actionable insight. Our data infrastructure is fragmented and unfit for purpose, which means valuable public sector data go underutilised. Labour’s manifesto commitment to build a National Data Library (NDL) could change that, however, making public data faster and easier to access and use. But for it to actually work, it needs more than just good intentions – it needs a clear vision and a solid plan.

This week, in a joint paper – Governing in the Age of AI: Building Britain’s National Data Library – our Head of Science and Technology Anastasia Bektimirova together with co-authors from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change delivered that detailed plan.

They leave nothing to chance, setting out in detail what needs to be done in the short, medium and long term. Getting this right would represent a transformative upgrade in the relationship between government and its citizens, while unlocking innovation opportunities for academia and businesses.

In academia, the NDL could revolutionise medical research by enabling scientists to assess treatment effectiveness more rapidly through NHS and social care records. Environmental researchers, meanwhile, could integrate air-pollution and health data to develop more effective public health interventions. By providing seamless and secure access to vital information, the NDL would empower researchers to tackle pressing societal challenges with greater precision and speed.

In the private sector, the NDL could fuel R&D. Startups and established firms alike could benefit from streamlined access to high-quality data sets, reducing the time and resources currently wasted navigating complex bureaucratic processes. This could, for example, help edtech companies build more effective personalised learning platforms.

In government, the NDL could improve policy design by enabling better data-sharing between Whitehall – for instance facilitating closer collaboration between HMRC, the NHS, and the Department for Work and Pensions to identify health-related barriers to employment and shape more effective welfare policies. Local councils, too, could use the NDL to deliver better public services, proactively identifying at-risk families and intervening before crises escalate. By streamlining data access while maintaining security and privacy, the NDL would enable smarter decision-making across the public and private sectors.

The paper offers over 40 detailed recommendations to make the NDL a reality. Among my favourites is to have dedicated National Data Librarians within government departments. Collectively, they would act as cross-government advisers who ensure data is accessible and aligned with real-world needs. Another great recommendation is that the UK should introduce a unique personal identifier to enable accurate data linkages across public services, following successful models from Estonia and Finland where such identifiers have transformed digital government while strengthening citizens’ control over their data.

The paper paints the NDL not as a giant data lake centralising all government data in one place. Instead, it should enable secure, federated access while ensuring departments retain control over their own data. It won’t function as a commercial marketplace selling government data, but rather as a facilitator of responsible and ethical use of public-sector information. The NDL’s true value lies in transforming data access by making it easier, faster, and more secure to link and use government data while standardising and simplifying data-sharing processes.

Entrepreneurs’ ingenuity will be critical to ensuring that the NDL’s full potential is realised – but first the Government needs to get on with delivering on the promise in (and of) its manifesto.

Food for Thoughts
Yesterday we hosted Parmy Olson for a dinner with Fora about her bestselling book Supremacy. It tells the behind-the-scenes story of the battle between OpenAI and DeepMind, and won the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award. You can find out more and get a copy of Supremacy here.

We’re busy planning our next Fora dinner. If you’re an Adviser, drop me an email with the names of who you’re keen to hear from.

As you’ll see below, we’ve got a lot of events planned and have just brought on a new team member to help us keep up with the demand. This is a roundabout way of suggesting: now’s the time to join us as a Supporter or Adviser to ensure you can come to as many of these as you want, while supporting our efforts to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business. It only takes a few clicks.

Tiny Experiments
On the theme of books, Adviser to the network Anne-Laure Le Cunff, has one out: Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World. In this transformative book, neuroscientist and entrepreneur Anne-Laure reveals the easier, proven method to achieve our ambitions: an experimental mindset.

You can find out more and get Tiny Experiments here. Anne-Laure’s also hosting an experimental supper club on the evening of the 18 March, which you can buy tickets for here.

Three Big Ideas #22

Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.

In this week, Eamonn Ives advocates for zonal electricity pricing, Philip Salter discusses IQ and entrepreneurship, and Jessie May Green writes about the health of the UK’s net zero economy.

Employment Rights (& Wrongs)

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has come out swinging this week, warning the Government that the Employment Rights Bill could “wreak havoc on our already fragile economy.”

As James Hurley writes: “One of the most radical changes is the planned removal of a two-year qualifying period for protections from unfair dismissal. Other changes that are concerning some small employers include granting new rights on sick pay from day one of employment.”

The Bill, due to return to Parliament for further debate, has sparked widespread concern. Entrepreneurs across our network have voiced serious reservations, which we’ve communicated to the Government. Finding the right balance is crucial to prevent widespread negative impacts.

The FSB’s numbers are stark: two-thirds of surveyed small companies indicate the plans would restrict their hiring capabilities, while one-third anticipate reducing their workforce before the measures take effect in 2026. The CIPD’s recent survey of over 2,000 employers reinforces these concerns: 32% are cutting headcount through redundancies or reduced recruitment, while 24% are either cancelling or scaling back business expansion plans.

The government’s own analysis projects annual costs to businesses in the billions. This economic burden won’t remain contained to businesses alone - an imbalanced approach risks creating exactly what the legislation aims to prevent: fewer and less secure jobs. Beyond job cuts and reduced hiring, the legislation may inadvertently encourage employers to shift toward temporary, casual, and self-employed workers.

The government doesn’t need to back down on every measure. A case can be made for fairer compensation for last-minute shift cancellations, appropriate bereavement leave for workers, and reforms to the practice of fire and rehire.

However, history demonstrates that sustainable workers’ rights improvements are intrinsically linked to economic growth. Economic expansion periods have consistently driven dramatic improvements in wages and job quality, enabling major advances in workers’ rights – from minimum wage laws to union rights and reduced working hours.

The Government doesn’t need me to tell them we’re not expanding now. That’s why in the final three months of last year, 32% of small employers expected to reduce staff, up from 17% in the previous quarter, while the proportion of companies looking to hire fell from 14% to 10% over the two quarters.

Now’s the time to double-down – nay, triple-down – on its pivot to growth.

Sovereign Albion
In a thought-provoking Substack article, friend of the Network Andrew Bennett advocates merging scientific and technological advancement with a renewed connection to British land, lore, and folk traditions. He backs our proposal to create a new chivalric order for innovation, but it’s mostly worth reading for a fresh perspective on thinking about progress. It also serves as an antidote for thinking too much about employment regulation!

Ecosystem Builders
Our good friends at the Global Entrepreneurship Network invite you to apply to join the UK delegation at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) in Indianapolis.

The GEC brings together over 5,000 global leaders – entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, academics, and support organisations – for four days of intensive networking, workshops, and keynote presentations. Find out more on their website and this deck.

The UK delegation, led by Marc Ortmans and Matt Smith, currently comprises 35 members with plans to expand to over 60. Contact Matt Smith to learn more and receive a GEC registration fee waiver code.

Pitch in Parliament
Startup Coalition (also friends of the Network) will be hosting a Pitch in Parliament on 17 March. They’re looking for startups that have raised over £500,000 and are solving a problem in Public Services with AI. Find out more.

Three Big Ideas #21

Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.

In this week, Eamonn Ives questions Reform’s latest policy idea, Anastasia Bektimirova discusses how the UK can become a global leader in AI-powered scientific discovery, and Jessie May Green ponders the right approach to thinking innovatively when it comes to decarbonising the economy.

Sense on Security

As is increasingly the case, our cousins across the pond managed to grab the headlines this week. Specifically Vice President JD Vance, who told world leaders at this week’s AI summit in Paris that the “AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety.”

To some people’s surprise, the US refused to sign the international AI declaration. To most people’s surprise, so too did the UK – choosing instead to side with the US over 60 other countries. The UK Government stated: “We felt the declaration didn’t provide enough practical clarity on global governance, nor sufficiently address harder questions around national security and the challenge AI poses to it.”

While some will attempt frame this as a sign that the UK and US don’t care about safety and regulation, it would be more accurate to see this as a move to clarify priorities. That’s why the UK’s AI Safety Institute has just rebranded as the AI Security Institute. As Ian Hogarth, Chair of the AISI, wrote on X: “It’s time to properly reflect that we see the most serious risks as being those to security.”

Our Substack readers might have seen this coming. In our most recent interview, Herbie Bradley, former member of the technical staff at the AISI, said on the AISI’s future: “It would be quite wise to focus more on AI security – specifically, securing training and deployment data centres against cyberattacks and working closely with the US through mechanisms like Five Eyes. AI security will become much more critical in the years to come, as I expect many capable cyber actors to want to attack highly capable AI systems.”

Maybe this puts us at odds with the EU, but until they upgrade their compass the choice is simple. While it might sound a little overblown, this is really all about the ‘free world’ prevailing. Of course, for this to make sense we must hope that Sam Freedman is wrong in predicting that the US might no longer be part of the free world (paywall) – though we’re less pessimistic.

The prize of getting this right is huge, and is underlined by today’s announcement that the government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Anthropic on AI opportunities. This points towards a future where AI will revolutionise the way that governments serve their citizens. Watch this space for more.

Makers Not Takers
Welcoming the launch of the AI Opportunities Action Plan last month, we noted that the true test will be in its execution. Part of the responsibility is on the AI sector itself.

To help drive engagement from the AI community, we’ve joined Phoenix Court, Faculty, Founders at the University of Cambridge, and other ecosystem players as a partner on the AI Forum.

The first meeting of the AI Forum brought together 68 leaders from across the ecosystem – researchers, startup founders, policy experts, civil society, and government officials. Attendees broke into six groups to focus on the key pillars of the plan: Infrastructure, Data, Talent & Skills, Governance, Go-To-Market, and how to ensure the UK is a nation of AI “makers.”

The next meetings of the AI Forum will take place on 30 April, 1 July, and 19 November. Whether you’re working on infrastructure, talent development, building AI models, or thinking about governance, now’s your chance to get involved.

The Action Plan sets an ambitious vision for UK leadership. You can help shape the next phase of the UK’s AI journey through a community survey.

What’s Up?
We’ve just launched our WhatsApp community. With a network of well over 10,000 entrepreneurs and even more people supporting them, this is a bit of a leap into the unknown.

You’ll see that there are a few groups already active there which are ongoing projects. Please feel free to request to join them, although there will be a more formal process for accepting people for privacy reasons. Do also feel free to suggest new groups. It’s going to be a process of trial and error (hopefully not too many of the latter).

As well as sharing updates, we’re going to use the groups to source ideas for those at the coalface. Managing a community requires a lot of work, so we’re weighing up the value of partnering with organisations, companies and individuals who can help us run specific groups.

In summary: join our community today and drop me an email if you want to help us run a group.

Please note that if you join the community, only The Entrepreneurs Network will be able to view your phone number, but if you are accepted to a specific group, your number will be visible to the other members of that group.

Three Big Ideas #20

Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.

In this week, Eamonn Ives discusses how to ensure policy change doesn’t simply create business uncertainty, Anastasia Bektimirova explains why staying ahead in sensor tech advances is critical, and Philip Salter makes the case for unbundling universities.

Lost Youth

Last Sunday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper ruled out plans to negotiate a Youth Mobility Scheme with the European Union. Let’s hope others in the Government convince her otherwise.

It won’t come as a surprise to regular readers that we support youth mobility. As we argued in Job Creators: 2024, since leaving the EU, we’ve made it unnecessarily hard for a relatively well-educated and skilled population with a broadly common set of values, culture and interests to contribute to our economy and forge ties with the UK.

Britain already has Youth Mobility Schemes – which allow those aged between 18-30 years old (or 18-35, depending on the country) to easily come and work in the UK – with many countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, San Marino, Monaco, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Uruguay and Taiwan.

When weighing up the economics, it’s something of a no-brainer. Youth Mobility Schemes help address labour shortages, ease inflationary pressures and support economic growth. They drive innovation, internationalisation and exporting for firms that employing these young people. By the Home Office’s own calculations, the average contribution of Youth Mobility visa holders to the exchequer in direct and indirect taxes annually is £10,000 today (adjusted for inflation).

Beyond economic benefits, the scheme promotes cultural exchange, strengthens international ties, enhances the UK’s soft power and fosters long-term collaboration that can lead to more economic benefits through future foreign direct investment.

But what about the politics of all this?

Well, nearly seven in ten Brits – including 55% of Leave voters – would support a scheme that would allow 200,000 18- to 40-year-olds from the UK and EU to travel, study and work freely in each other’s countries for up to four years.

And while the Conservatives – with Reform on their backs – will be unlikely to endorse the move, former Chancellor George Osborne makes the point on Political Currency that in negotiating a business-friendly arrangement with the EU, the Labour Party would set a trap for his Party. After all, the changes will be cemented in by the election, meaning Conservative opposition to them would put the Party at odds with Britain’s powerful business lobby.

Of course, the net migration figures terrify the Government. However, just 23,000 people came to the UK on Youth Mobility Visas in 2023, with as many young Brits going the other way (particularly to Australia). Also, most of these schemes are capped – Uruguay at 500 people, Canada at 8,000, and Australia at 45,000. We could negotiate for a capped EU Youth Mobility Visa scheme to offset the political risk associated with unexpectedly large numbers.

Nuclear Options
Keir Starmer has vowed to “rip up the rulebook” to accelerate new nuclear power, including small modular reactors (SMRs), which promise faster and cheaper deployment than traditional gigawatt-scale plants.

Reforms include increasing the number of sites on which power stations can be located, widely seen as one of the most important things for the industry, setting up a Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce (see here for more on this), and better aligning the UK with international partners so reactor designs approved abroad could be green-lit more quickly.

This was music to our ears, and surely to those of Britain’s energy-intensive businesses too. In Small Wonders, our Research Director Eamonn Ives’ number one recommendation was around increasing the number of sites, and he also recommended international mutual recognition.

Far be it for us to look a gift policy in the mouth, but we would add that this should just be the start. We also proposed allowing local authorities which approve the construction of new nuclear power stations to capture more of the business rates they pay, and increasing the resourcing of the nuclear regulators to deal with more applications.

Regardless, a nuclear renaissance in Britain has never looked so likely.

Getting to Know You
If you scroll down you’ll see we’ve got lots of events in the pipeline. Some of these are close to full already, so if you want earlier invites, you’ll need to spend a couple of minutes telling us a bit about you and the sorts of events you want to be invited to.

As part of our growing activities, we’re also looking for new places around the country to host us. If you or your company would like to partner with us, drop us an email.

Breaking Barriers
The Disability Policy Centre are conducting a new project around disabled CEOs and business leaders, for which they’re interviewing entrepreneurs across a range of businesses.

Do you know someone who has a great story to tell about the barriers they faced in getting to the top and how they’re working to remove them? If so, feel free to drop Chloe and Louie a line.

Three Big Ideas #19

Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.

In this week, Eamonn Ives takes stock of President Trump’s latest barrage of tariffs, Anastasia Bektimirova discusses bridging the science-policy gap, and Jessie May Green examines what DeepSeek’s ultra-efficient AI model could mean for future energy demand.

Arc of History

As Our World in Data informs us, extreme poverty around the world is plummeting. There are more than a billion fewer people living below the International Poverty Line of $2.15 per day today than in 1990. On average, the number declined by 47 million every year, or 130,000 people each day.

This isn’t to excuse the poverty that still blights our world – exactly the opposite. It’s proof that progress is possible, and a motivation to work all the harder to help the remaining 650 million people – roughly one in twelve – who still live under that line.

So how does this happen? To radically simplify, the world gets richer through productivity increases – in other words, doing more with less, with entrepreneurs the driving force behind this. This doesn’t just happen in isolation – an entrepreneurial society is a social phenomenon. As Alfred Marshall set out in 1890 in Principles of Economics, agglomeration economies benefit from being close to one another due to knowledge spillovers, shared suppliers, and a concentrated labour market.

In other words, an entrepreneurial society thrives when businesses, talent, and infrastructure reinforce one another. This is why the Oxford-Cambridge Arc has long been seen as a potential growth engine – and why we’ve been long-standing supporters of it. As some readers may remember, the original plan under Boris Johnson was to build a new ​​rail link, new homes and a new expressway – but bit by bit, the project fell apart.

In a turn towards growth, Rachel Reeves has revived the Arc. And it’s worth quoting her at length – both for the all-too-rare pleasure of reading political statements that we can wholeheartedly endorse, but also to set it down as a marker to judge words against action.

The Chancellor said: “To grow, these world-class companies need world-class talent who should be able to get to work quickly and find somewhere to live in the local area. But to get from Oxford to Cambridge by train takes two and a half hours.”... “There is no way to commute directly from places like Bedford and Milton Keynes to Cambridge by rail. And there is a lack of affordable housing across the region.”... “Oxford and Cambridge are two of the least affordable cities in the UK. In other words, the demand is there but there are far too many supply side constraints on economic growth in the region.”

As Stian Westlake, Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and one of our Advisers, said back in 2022: “If you’ve got lots of smart people doing great research, if you make it easy to build housing and offices near those people, the magic of the free market will do its thing. People will set up businesses and economic growth will happen.”

“The tragedy in the UK,” he goes on to say, “is that we channel lots and lots of public money into two very beautiful towns – Oxford and Cambridge – where it is almost impossible to build anything. The arc is an attempt to solve this by allowing people to build things in between – Milton Keynes, Bedford – link it up with roads and rail, so it gets easier for entrepreneurs to set up the things they want to.”

As we wrote in Building Blocks: “Too few people subscribe to an agglomeration-led approach to growth. The political focus of late has shifted away from championing dynamic hotspots like the Golden Triangle, most obviously, but also even regions like Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Bristol.”

I’ll end with the words of Reeves: “It has the potential to be Europe’s Silicon Valley. The home of British innovation.” (Though in the long run, actions speak louder than words.)

The Codemakers
Hot off the press, we’ve just released an interview with Herbie Bradley, AI governance and policy expert and former member of the technical staff at the AI Safety Institute (AISI).

The interview with Anastasia Bektimirova, our Head of Science and Technology, covers a lot of ground, which defies summarising. Instead, I will point to one lesson Bradley says he learned from his experience at AISI that could be applied to getting other existing and future projects off the ground and scaling them effectively within DSIT, or government more broadly (excuse the long quote, but I think the insight deserves it):

“When you’re trying to build state capacity or launch a new initiative that needs to be impactful and move fast, you basically need to start a new team. If it’s an existing team, it’s probably too enmeshed in bureaucracy.

Secondly, you need significant political backing. In our case, we were fortunate to have great support from Henry de Zoete, who was then the Prime Minister’s Adviser on AI, and others in No. 10 and DSIT, particularly the minister at the time, Michelle Donelan. This means you can get around normal bureaucracy when needed, like hiring someone in a way that hasn’t been done before within the department.

You also need an incentive to perform well. This could be internal motivation from team members believing in the ideal or mission, a tight deadline like a Summit organised on very short notice, or competitive pressure from overlapping mandates with existing teams.

And finally, try to hire from outside government – people who are used to moving fast from industry and the startup world. That’s also effective.

There is an inevitable effect where a new, fast-moving, high-entropy team gradually gets pressed down by bureaucratic systems like HR, contracting, and finance. The general systemic incentive is to reduce fast-moving teams to a low-entropy state and make them more similar to the rest of government.

To counteract this, you need political backing and might need to start a new team or initiative if the first one becomes too slow. This explains why politicians often like to start new teams. There is an analogy here to the fractal startup model in industry. OpenAI scaled their ChatGPT team by creating conditions mimicking a pre-seed stage startup – totally new Google Drive, getting the new product team together in person five days a week, creating a separate office space – and that works surprisingly well.”

I strongly recommend reading the interview in full.

The Codemakers

In our latest interview, Anastasia Bektimirova spoke to Herbie Bradley, AI governance and policy expert and former member of the technical staff at the Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute. Among other things, they discussed building Britain’s AI advantage and what the AI Safety Institute can teach us about state capacity.

Three Big Ideas #18

Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.

In this week, Eamonn Ives looks at the results of a new paper on the benefits of the sharing economy, Anastasia Bektimirova gives her take on the new Science and Technology Venture Capital Fellowship, and Philip Salter argues that fully unleashing academics’ innovative potential will take more than just building.