It was just three weeks ago that I wrote about regulation, so I’ll try to keep it brief as I appreciate that for many it’s a surefire cure for insomnia.
Nevertheless, regulation really does matter for entrepreneurship in the UK. Good versus bad regulations can result in a business or sector being able to flourish or being stymied – it can be the difference between the UK becoming a laggard or a leader in a new technology.
We have been asked by the Better Regulation Executive to represent your views on regulatory changes to ensure an entrepreneur-led economic recovery. If you fill in this survey we will pass all views directly to them and pull out some to deliver in our presentation. It’s an opportunity to have a direct say on the future of regulation. There are no required questions apart from an email (we don’t like unnecessary regulations here), so answer as few or many as you want. But feel free to get into the nitty gritty of what’s impacting your business or industry as that’s where the real gems will be. We welcome expert input from non-entrepreneurs too.
Separately we’ve started work on a project considering broader regulatory reforms (you can get a hint about what this might look like here). Your views will also help inform this work and we may ask to use your insights as a case study for it. If you have any questions about this report get in touch with our research director Sam Dumitriu.
H is for
Today is World Environment Day. “One of the few benefits of the Coronavirus lockdown has been the dramatic improvement in air quality. To continue enjoying this unexpected bonus, we need to speed up the transition to zero-emission vehicles – like electric cars or hydrogen-powered buses,” argues Eamonn Ives in a report out this yesterday on how hydrogen can fuel a transport revolution.
As Eamonn makes clear, despite extremists on either side of the debate, we don’t need to choose between economic growth and environmental protection – both can go hand-in-hand.
Even if we electrified all of Britain’s cars tomorrow, other modes of transport would still be emitting 56.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent – 45% of transport emissions, or fully 12% of total emissions. Eamonn suggests innovation in hydrogen technologies will be part of the puzzle for these heavier vehicles for which electric batteries might never be suitable.
Regulation matters (sorry, I can’t help myself today). We currently have some very perverse incentives at play. As the report details, each year the Government doles out around £250m to bus operators as part of the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG). Payments are based upon the volume of fuel consumed – paying operators 34.57 pence per litre of diesel burnt. What the BSOG strictly incentivises, therefore, is fuel consumption, as opposed to distance travelled – disincentivising reduced fuel consumption. This can be easily fixed.
More broadly, Eamonn calls for hydrogen to be given a much bigger role in transport decarbonisation by using the UK bus fleet as a testbed for the technology. “Embracing hydrogen would also give Britain an opportunity to lead the world in a vital sector and create thousands of green jobs – at a time when other economies are moving quickly to seize the global hydrogen market.”
Eamonn has written about the report for City AM and CapX, and is writing a report we’re undertaking with the Enterprise Trust on entrepreneurship and the environment. You can drop Eamonn an email to find out how you can get involved.
Starting Gates
Many of the world’s best companies were started in recessions. While access to finance can be a challenge, the disruption in talent may push the next Bill Gates into starting a business (Microsoft was started in the midst of the mid-1970s oil crisis). Gates famously dropped out of Harvard, but many great ideas are started or spun out of universities.
The National Association of College & University Entrepreneurs – better known as Nacue – has been supporting entrepreneurship among students in higher education and further education for over a decade, and has opened up applications for students and graduates across the country to participate in its annual competition: Tata Varsity Pitch 2020. The competition is open to any current student studying at a UK based institution or anyone who has graduated since 2015. The application process starts with a 60-second video pitch and the deadline is 24th July.
If you know a student who has a business (or even just a great idea) – let them know about it.
Regulation, Regulation, Regulation