This week, we backed a campaign to make sure small businesses can benefit from the government’s Help to Grow: Digital scheme.
Alongside Coadec, Enterprise Nation, the FSB, and CfE, the Sign for Small coalition is calling for the scheme to be expanded.
Right now, it only supports small businesses with 5-249 employees and only offers vouchers for three types of technology. This means over 750,000 small businesses will not be supported.
The coalition is arguing that the scheme should be expanded in two simple ways. First, it should include small businesses with 2-5 employees, supporting small businesses by giving them a productivity boost through access to subsidised software. Second, the government should broaden the range of software covered under the scheme, offering small businesses a greater variety of tools they need to grow.
We’re not backing this because we want business owners to get freebies – that’s not our style. We’re backing this because we know that tech adoption will help tackle the UK’s sluggish productivity, making the whole country better off. While Help to Grow: Digital might not be the perfect intervention, given it's the main thing the government is doing to try to support digital adoption cutting out micro businesses is an error.
As our Upgrade report found: “If the UK’s 1.1m micro businesses doubled their uptake of key digital technologies, it would lead to a £4,050 average productivity boost for the 4.09m workers employed by micro businesses, restoring four-fifths of lost productivity growth since the financial crisis.”
You can support the campaign by signing up, and forwarding this on to others who you think will back the campaign too.
What is Means to Me
Whether John Major’s Back to Basics, Tony Blair’s Respect agenda or David Cameron's Big Society, flagship policies have a habit of being vague to the point of incoherence. And so, it’s not a huge surprise that the Levelling Up agenda can seem a bit wishy washy.
Neil O'Brien, Minister for Levelling Up, did a decent job of explaining in the Guardian last month: “To empower local leaders and communities. To grow the private sector and raise living standards – particularly where they are lower. To spread opportunity and improve public services, particularly where they are lacking. And to restore local pride, whether that is about the way your town centre feels, keeping the streets safe or backing community life.” And the forthcoming White Paper is expected to put some meat on the bones.
Clearly, this leaves a lot of room for policy. And, given the reliance on the private sector, a significant role for entrepreneurship. That’s why as part of the APPG for Entrepreneurship, which we’re the Secretariat of, we’re writing a briefing paper on the topic, which includes a Call for Evidence.
The deadline for responding is next Friday. You can find the questions here. Please don’t feel obliged to answer them all. We appreciate you are busy and would prefer that you focus on one or two questions where you feel you can add the most value. In fact, many of the most persuasive submissions we have received to past Calls for Evidence only addressed a single question.
Reya Light
As regular readers will be aware, this year we set up our Green Entrepreneurship Forum with the law firm Mishcon de Reya. Whatever targets come out of COP26, we know that entrepreneurs will be critical in creating the technology to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate other environmental harms.
As part of this new Forum, we've already hosted two engaging roundtables. The first with Danny Kruger MP covered a lot of ground, illustrating the breadth of the challenge – but also the incredible entrepreneurial solutions. Read a summary of the launch roundtable here.
The second focused on how sustainable businesses and businesses working for social good can scale through debt and equity fundraising, including the role the government plays – or should play. Read the summary of the funding roundtable here.
Our next event is on 18th November. Get in touch with Katrina to enquire about places.
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