A generation ago, when asked how business was going, an owner might jokingly reply, ‘If it weren’t for the customers and staff, everything would be fine!’ Today, that’s changed. The greatest challenge facing small businesses isn’t customers or staff – it’s red tape, regulation and compliance. When I delivered the Adam Smith Institute’s Ayn Rand […]
The past 15 months have underscored one truth: Britain needs a stronger economy. Businesses, not government, drive growth. The UK’s 5.4 million small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) employ 16.6 million people – one in three voters – and generate £2.8 trillion in turnover. They are not only the engine of our economy but a vital […]
London Tech Week arrived with optimism and bold declarations. Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised £1 billion to scale the UK’s compute capacity for artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, praised the UK’s research credentials and private investment, declaring our AI ecosystem ‘perfect for take-off’. His only concern? The absence of sufficient computing infrastructure. It […]
Labour’s first year in government has already seen more U-turns than a learner driver on a test track. One came earlier this month, when Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds backed away from his own department’s plan to scrap long-standing exemptions for small companies filing accounts with Companies House. The proposed rule would have forced even micro-entities […]
A recent report by the IPPR has highlighted a crisis facing young people in Britain. Too many feel as though their time spent in school has failed to prepare them for the real working world. But whilst this is an undeniable truth, there is a larger problem at play – the anti-business attitude that has […]
A year ago, I stood inside Canons Leisure Centre watching the results roll in. After 14 years in power, the Conservatives had been comprehensively ousted. Keir Starmer was poised to take Downing Street with a commanding majority, and a supposedly reformed Labour Party was ready to write the next chapter of our national story. For […]
The UK stands on the precipice of an economic disaster that could define a generation. By Q3 and Q4 of 2026, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the beating heart of Britain’s economy, face a collapse in sentiment and viability that threatens to ripple through jobs, communities and the political landscape. This isn’t scaremongering; it’s a […]
The judges’ scores are in: Wise’s decision to float in New York is surefire proof that London is in the doldrums. Empty rhetoric and ‘get Britain building’ aside, as a financial centre our capital is stooping deeper and deeper into uncompetitiveness. Without a concerted, active effort from our Chancellor to fix our regulators, I’m afraid […]
For over a decade, British governments have been repeating the same line: that small and medium-sized enterprises – the lifeblood of the economy – must have a fairer shot at winning public contracts. It began with David Cameron’s coalition pledging to direct a quarter of government spending to SMEs. This was then upped by Boris […]
In this edition of ‘Nimby Watch’, we’re going to Borough, in South London, and we’re talking about the urgent issue of food halls… Where are we off to this time, then? Quite a nice spot, for now! We’re visiting Mercato Metropolitano, an open-all-hours food hall with 40 or so independent traders, operating on a site between […]
The fact that there are currently over nine million adults in the UK economically inactive, including over 3m people on long-term disability benefits and nearly 1m people aged 16-24 not in employment, education or training, is a national scandal. Thinkers like Fraser Nelson have done an impeccable job at highlighting the explosion in inactivity since […]
During my years as a start-up founder, I had the dubious pleasure of navigating the spoken and unspoken procurement rules of Network Rail. To my dismay, I found that discretionary budgets didn’t sit with the operations managers who were the direct clients, nor with the Central Innovation team but under the auspices of the multi-million […]
The UK has a tech scale-up problem. Too often we fail to support our most innovative and successful startups to grow into global competitors within the UK. Instead, we’re seeing a trend of ‘UK begins, elsewhere cashes in’. Our brightest companies pursue greater growth potential in other markets or seek acquisition by foreign companies. Two […]
One of the great benefits of working in think tank world is that you can have genuinely robust conversations in the office. From euthanasia to the price of a pint, there are few topics I haven’t debated at some point with a colleague sat opposite me. While enjoyable, I understand that not all working environments […]
For a reason I can’t quite fathom, small businesses in the UK are routinely attacked by the government. You’d think the opposite might be true, given they employ two-thirds of the workforce (excluding the public sector), many of whom are active voters. Successive governments, latest flavour included, are missing a trick by not actively supporting […]
I do not generally indulge in what Eleanor H Porter’s Pollyanna called ‘the Glad Game’, although the current political climate makes it tempting, as ideological opponents become poisonously irreconcilable enemies. Counterintuitively, however, amid the rising polarisation, there is still one idea to which most mainstream political opinion subscribes: that the key to making Britain great […]
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