Although every policy has a thousand fathers (and mothers), it's always heartening when ideas we've pushed are backed by politicians.
Back in 2015 we released Made in the UK with the NUS, revealing that 42 per cent of international students intended to start a business after graduation. However, in order to do this, international graduates wanted time to work in start-ups, building their ideas and networks. Instead, many of the best and brightest in the world are turfed out. That's why we made the case for reintroducing the Post-Study Work Visa, which prior to 2012 granted international students time the time they needed after graduating.
The Post-Study Work Visa was scrapped by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary. Today, Sajid Javid – the Home Office's Secretary of State and contender to be the next Prime Minister – has promised to support Jo Johnson's cross-party visa proposals, which includes the reintroduction of the Post-Study Work Visa.
Javid has also vowed to broaden the apprenticeship levy into a wider skills levy, giving employers the flexibility they need to train their workforce. Again, this is something that we called for in our recent Management Matters report – part of our ABE-sponsored Business Stay-Up campaign.
Meanwhile, fellow leadership hopeful Sam Gyimah announced some encouraging tax policies today. As part of a five-point plan to scrap the worst taxes in Britain, Gyimah has called for a couple of things we've proposed. He would replace business rates with a commercial land tax – paid by commercial landlords on the land value so that no business is worse off if it invests in its property. He also plans to make all business investments deductible immediately, by making the Annual Investment Allowance unlimited. We suggested both these things in our report on Tax Reform for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship.
No matter who becomes Prime Minister, many of the policies announced by the candidates over the coming days (both good and bad) will feed into the next Government's agenda. Today's announcements offer room for hope.
On your bike
The Resolution Foundation has released some important research. Moving Matters finds that the rate at which the British public take up a new opportunity and change residence has fallen – particularly for younger people. Among other things, the report finds the propensity of young private renters to move home and job fell by two-thirds between 1997 and 2018, largely driven by increased rental costs. This should concern us all. Individuals can't make the most of their talents if they're priced out of cities, and entrepreneurship is stymied if the pool of talent isn't deep for founders to build their companies.
A Thousand Fathers