Work Out

This week we learned that the UK’s unemployment rate hit a near five-year high in the last quarter of 2025, climbing to 5.2%. Among 16 to 24-year-olds, unemployment rose to 16.1%, the highest in more than a decade — and above the EU average for the first time since records began in 2000. Ouch!

Entrepreneurs in our network knew this was happening in real time. As reported by Bloomberg:

“One in four founders have made fewer administrative hires, and 19% recruited fewer juniors in response to AI technological advancements, according to a survey conducted by The Entrepreneurs Network in November. Only 2% said they increased headcount.”

(Incidentally, this is one reason you should complete our latest Entrepreneurs Survey. Your views on tax breaks will be submitted to the Government’s call for evidence, and you may like to know that strategists in all political parties are on tenterhooks to find out which outfit — or none, if you prefer — entrepreneurs say best understands their needs.)

Friend of the network Rachael Twumasi-Corson identifies the dual challenge in the same Bloomberg article:

“It’s scary to hire people, the minimum wage is so high and there’s so many additional protections”...“I would much rather have a team, celebrate wins and figure out ways to solve problems together, but at the moment, my team is ChatGPT and Gemini.”

It’s not just the minimum wage though. While the Government thankfully ditched its pledge to give day-one protection from unfair dismissal, the impact of the Employment Rights Act will still be brutal — here are no fewer than 55 reasons why. As our Research Director Eamonn Ives told Bloomberg:

“Before, the mindset might have been: we’ve got this idea and we’re going to quickly recruit as many people as possible to pursue it.”...“Now startups are thinking twice about taking on new hires who they might not be able to keep on if things don’t pan out.”

The cost of this direction of travel is clear. In a brilliant article for Works in Progress, Pieter Garicano argues — convincingly — that labour laws go a long way to explaining the innovation divide between the US and Europe.

This is seen most obviously when companies like Bird, Grammarly and Hugging Face move explicitly for this reason. But most of the damage is done below the surface. Relative to income, it costs large companies four times more to lay off workers in Germany and France than in the US — a difference arising entirely from regulation. As Pieter writes:

“If it is expensive to lay people off, employers avoid creating jobs that they might subsequently discontinue. Innovation involves experimentation and risk, so jobs in innovative areas of the economy are more likely to be discontinued than jobs elsewhere. High severance costs create a fundamental incentive for European businesses to avoid innovative areas and concentrate on safe, unchanging ones. In the long run, this is a recipe for decline.”

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Pieter argues that Europe doesn’t need to choose between innovation and worker protection — it can have both, as Denmark and Austria show.

Denmark’s ‘flexicurity’ model lets employers fire almost at will, while the government catches workers with generous unemployment insurance (up to 90% of prior income for two years) and heavy spending on retraining. Austria uses portable severance accounts funded by employers, so workers keep their safety net when they change jobs.

Britain doesn’t have to choose between a safety net and a dynamic economy. But right now, we’re getting the worst of both worlds.

Our Adviser Anton Howes has created an employment cost calculator, which you may find useful. We’ve also compiled some useful links on our Support for UK Entrepreneurs page, including the Government’s new Employment Changes guidance on workplace rights reforms.

Value Judgement

This week, we joined 18 other business organisations in calling on the Government to consult on extending VAT liability rules for online marketplaces. As things stand, some overseas sellers exploit gaps in the current system to avoid charging VAT, giving them an automatic 20% price advantage over British businesses who play by the rules. For entrepreneurs who rely on marketplaces to grow, this is a serious competitive threat.

As well as levelling the playing field, reform could recover an estimated £700 million a year for the Exchequer. What’s not to like?

Leading Light

I’m delighted to share that Gaurav Chawla has joined us as an Adviser. Gaurav is a deep-tech founder, angel investor and university mentor focused on strengthening the UK’s science-to-scale pipeline.

As well as leading Lumirithmic, an Imperial College London spinout, he invests in and mentors early-stage founders emerging from Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial and UCL.

Gaurav is bullish on the UK:

“The UK combines world-class universities with global capital markets and a strong legal framework. The opportunity lies in strengthening risk appetite and improving the pathways between research institutions and commercial markets. With better alignment between policy, capital, and execution, the UK is well positioned to lead in deep-tech commercialisation.”

He also describes our quarterly Entrepreneurs Survey as “invaluable”:

“Policy debates often rely on theory; those surveys surface the lived experience of founders navigating tax policy, capital constraints, hiring, and regulation in real time. If we want to fix the commercialisation gap in UK deep tech, we need to listen to operators and study where companies stall, not just celebrate research output.”

Hear, hear! Now is your chance to do something invaluable (in under 10 minutes).

XOX

Our new buddies at SXSW London have asked us to share two opportunities I think will interest many of you.

First, the London Venture Spotlight: a university-affiliated pitch competition designed to platform emerging startups developing technologies that felt like science fiction just a few years ago. First prize is £100,000 in investment and an on-stage slot at SXSW Pitch in Austin. Find out more here.

Second, SXSW London is also looking for mentors to deliver pre-booked 1:1 sessions with festival attendees, matched by industry expertise. Mentors contribute 100 minutes in total — five focused 20-minute conversations. They’re also seeking roundtable leads for intimate, facilitated group discussions of 10–15 delegates, lasting one hour. Register your interest here.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff's Speech at the Launch of Job Creators

Anne-Laure Le Cunff — neuroscientist, Founder of Ness Labs and Adviser to The Entrepreneurs Network — spoke at the launch of our latest Job Creators report:

I'm the founder of Ness Labs, a science-based platform helping knowledge workers be more productive and creative without sacrificing their mental health. It's work that grew directly out of my research as a neuroscientist at King's College, London where I study curiosity, among other things. And I think curiosity is actually the right word for tonight.

When I read the report, the finding that jumped out at me wasn't just that more than half of the fastest growing companies in the UK have a foreign-born founder. It was the list of countries those founders come from. Twenty-nine nations, six continents. And the most common country of origin? France.

As a French-Algerian person born in Paris, I feel a certain personal pride in that statistic. But more than pride, I feel gratitude. Because the UK gave me something I'm not sure I would have found anywhere else.

I first moved here in 2013. I left for the US in 2015, came back in 2017, and it's now been almost a decade that I call this country home. In that time, I've gone from working in tech, to doing a PhD, to building a company. And the reason I could do all of that here is precisely what makes the UK special: this is a country where you can wear many hats. Where reinventing yourself isn't just tolerated — it's encouraged.

The UK is cosmopolitan, diverse, and creative, combining world-class research institutions with a thriving startup culture — which, for someone building a science-based business, is the perfect combination. Our proximity to Europe also matters to me; I consider myself European at heart and I deeply value the exposure to different perspectives and talent. The UK has a long tradition of intellectual curiosity and exploration, and given that I study curiosity for a living, I can't think of a better place to be.

Now, I want to be honest. I've been fortunate. I moved here before Brexit, which meant I didn't face the visa hurdles that many brilliant people face today. But increasingly, when I meet talented researchers and founders from abroad — people who would be extraordinary additions to our economy — I hear the same story. The processing delays are unpredictable. The costs are steep, especially for early-stage companies. And too often, as a result, these people decide it's simply easier to go somewhere else. That's real talent, real companies, and real jobs that the UK will never see.

So I want to highlight two recommendations from tonight's report that I think deserve real attention.

First: protect fast-track settlement for exceptional talent. When someone already has a proven track record, forcing them onto a ten-year settlement track sends the wrong signal.

Second: design a selective Spinout visa for graduates and academics. I've seen firsthand, at King's College, London and across UK universities, how much world-class research never contributes to the economy, sometimes simply because the researcher doesn't have the right to stay and build a business.

The UK has something genuinely rare: a combination of intellectual curiosity and entrepreneurial energy that draws people from all over the world. Let's make sure we don't close the door on the very people who help make this country exceptional.

Divide Intervention

I hope you’ll forgive another push, but our Entrepreneurs Survey is now open. If you’ve already completed it — thank you. If not, we’d value any founders who are reading to give just ten minutes of their time to do so.

We know your time is precious, so we wouldn’t ask you to spend it on us if we didn’t think it was worth it. Your responses will form the basis of our submission to the Treasury’s call for evidence on tax support for entrepreneurs, which closes soon. And while I can’t promise that the Government will do everything necessary to make the tax system perfect for entrepreneurs, this really is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference.

I’ve used Margaret Mead’s quote before and will do so again: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Have your say

If you’re not a founder, you can help us by forwarding this to entrepreneurs in your network and reposting this LinkedIn post (also feel free to connect with me while you’re there).

It’s Not Me

The Liberal Democrats have proposed breaking up the Treasury and replacing it with a new Department for Growth based in Birmingham if they were to enter government.

The proposed department would set taxes, design growth strategy, oversee major infrastructure decisions and shape spending rules. The Department for Business and Trade would be merged into it, while a separate Department for Public Expenditure would oversee spending.

All the way back in 2014, Giles Wilkes and Stian Westlake (an Adviser to us) argued for a similar idea. As with many Nesta papers from that period, it is still worth reading — not least because it explains how the reform could fail if poorly implemented.

The main risks are weaker fiscal discipline, the loss of the Treasury as an internal challenger to departmental spending demands, and coordination problems between tax, spending and growth policy. It would also shift power toward the Prime Minister and would rely on a politically strong growth department — without that, the old behaviour likely re-emerges informally.

Nevertheless, it’s a bold idea worthy of serious consideration from all parties. It also shows the long arm of influence that top quality research can have.

Still Believe

This week, Tim Shipman claimed in The Spectator (paywall) that even loyalists think Keir Starmer lacks a ‘philosophical worldview’. If the Prime Minister is on the hunt for one, we have one ready and waiting. The clearest articulation is in our statement of What We Believe, namely that:

“Entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful engines of productivity and progress. Throughout history, entrepreneurial ventures have transformed societies, lifting people from subsistence to prosperity.”

Our first signatory was Adviser Richard Browning — Founder, CEO and Chief Test Pilot of Gravity Industries. But the idea isn’t limited to entrepreneurs (or Prime Ministers). If you share our worldview, add your name to our website here.

Rise Up

Barclays is working with Female Founders Rise on The Rise Report of Female Entrepreneurship 2026. You can sign up here to receive a copy in your inbox. Women’s Health Horizons is inviting female healthtech founders and senior leaders to apply to speak at its conference on 10 March.

Rally Round

Bradley Jones, Founder of ThatRound, has joined us as an Adviser. A serial entrepreneur and angel investor, Bradley is focused on improving how UK-based startups raise capital.

Bradley sees the UK as one of Europe’s strongest places to build a company: deep financial services, strong early-stage incentives, leading universities and growing regional hubs. He believes founders need a stronger policy voice — “entrepreneurs on the front line should help shape the rules of the game” — and values our role translating founder experience into reform.

You can learn more about joining our growing ambitious band of Advisers here.

Message from our Partner

At Fora, we create flexible workspaces that empower ambitious businesses to thrive. With over 70 locations across London, the UK and Germany, our spaces are designed to fuel productivity, creativity and growth.

Now, we’re bringing that vision to The Jellicoe at King’s Cross — a dedicated hub for founders and fast-growing companies. Here, flexibility meets opportunity: scale at speed with agile workspace solutions, connect with a curated community of entrepreneurs and investors, and enjoy all the perks of a Fora membership, from wellness spaces and hospitality-grade service to events that open doors.

Surround yourself with innovators and global tech giants in one of London’s most exciting neighbourhoods.

If you’re building the next big thing, this is where you want to be.

Three Big Ideas #54

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

This week, Eamonn Ives ponders the productivity impacts of a pledge to end working from home, Mann Virdee discusses how and when institutional reform is required, and Jessie May Green argues innovation will be essential if Britain is to strengthen its defences against ecosystem degradation.

Power of Ten

The Government needs you. Specifically, they want your views as part of a call for evidence into the future of tax for entrepreneurs, which closes soon. This is your chance to influence it by completing our latest Entrepreneurs Survey.

Investment tax reliefs, employee share schemes, and the tax treatment of founder exits are all under consideration. Your responses will directly shape the evidence we submit.

Beyond this, your answer will inform how the Government, political parties and the media understand entrepreneurs. Your views will also set the agenda for what we work and campaign on.

It only takes around 10 minutes to complete, but will be felt in the policies that impact you and your business for years to come.

Master Stroke

Time entrepreneurs spend on administrative compliance is time they don’t spend growing their companies. Fragmented and opaque processes also enable fraud and slow down access to finance. There is a solution: The Master Key.

In our latest paper, published with Enterprise Nation and Xero, we make the case for a Unique Business Identifier combined with Verified Credentials — a “Master Key” that puts entrepreneurs in control.

Countries like Singapore, Australia and New Zealand already use this model, and the UK has laid much of the legislative groundwork. The final steps could deliver a productivity boost for Britain’s 5.7 million SMEs.

It’s time for Britain to beat bureaucracy.

Cool Operator

Our latest UK AI Fieldbook interview (supported by OpenAI) features our formidable Adviser Rodolfo Rosini of Vaire Computing.

As well as explaining Rodolfo’s audacious aim of near-zero energy computing, Mann Virdee draws out policy lessons from the frontline of building a foundational hardware company: use the state as an early customer rather than grants, fund measurable outcomes not academic approaches, and fix the UK’s scaling gap by improving capital markets and easing entry for top technical talent.

Read, like and subscribe here (especially if you need a clear explainer on reversible computing).

STEM the Flow

The Government is considering a Migration Advisory Committee recommendation to remove the PhD salary discount under the Skilled Worker visa. Today, firms can hire immigrant STEM PhDs from £33,400, but this would rise to £41,700 absent the discount. If you’ve hired — or are considering hiring — STEM PhDs via this route, please complete this short form.

Stamp it Out

As every economist (worthy of the name) knows, Stamp Duty Land Tax acts as a major barrier to mobility, discouraging moves for work, limiting firms’ ability to recruit across regions and reducing labour-market flexibility. That’s why we’re backing our Adviser Andrew Dixon OBE’s petition calling for a full Independent Review of Stamp Duty. You might want to as well.

Good Advice

As our WhatsApp Community already knows, we’ve soft-launched a website page directing founders to support. Support for UK Entrepreneurs (SEO rules everything around me) does exactly what it says on the tin — but it’s still a work in progress, and we’d like your help building it out.

We’d especially welcome suggestions from: entrepreneurs who’ve benefited from great advice, investors who share useful resources, public sector teams running overlooked support, operators who see recurring founder problems, advisers who help navigate complexity, ecosystem builders who connect people to the right help, and providers offering something special to our community.

Onyertrain

Are you plugged into Birmingham’s or Exeter’s entrepreneurial ecosystem? If not, here’s your chance to meet (nearly) everyone who matters locally — and others like you.

Our Ecosystem Builders events are deliberately light-touch but designed for deep connections. If you’re travelling in, you can also work from the space for the day, so it won’t interrupt your workflow (and you get to spend the day with us).

Birmingham is on 5 March (find out more here), and Exeter is on 24 April (find out more here).

Ideas to Impact

One of the best things about running The Entrepreneurs Network is meeting genuinely extraordinary people at our events each week — people building incredible businesses that restore my faith in human ingenuity and our ability to tackle the world’s most pressing problems. It’s a privilege to spend time among people like this.

That was certainly true on Tuesday, when we hosted the launch of our latest Female Founders Forum report, Ideas to Impact, in partnership with Barclays. To pick just three examples from a room of 150 phenomenal female founders: Wenmiao Yu of Quantum Dice is building cryptographic infrastructure for a post-quantum world, using quantum mechanics to secure everything from financial networks to national systems. Di Gilpin of Smart Green Shipping is cutting emissions from global shipping through wind-assisted propulsion. Magdalene Ho of Traxion Biotech is developing breakthrough therapeutics for neurological conditions. I could go on (over one hundred more times).

Victoria Collins MP, Science, Innovation and Technology Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, speaking at the launch

Policymakers would do well to tap into that ambition. On current trends, women may not reach parity with men in founding university spinouts until 2060. I won’t rehearse all ten recommendations here, but I will briefly summarise the three I set out today in Forbes.

First, the report argues that time — not talent — is the binding constraint, and that universities need to grant academics credible ways to de-risk career pauses. We propose Commercialisation Fellowships: time-limited buy-outs that allow academics to build companies without jeopardising publications, promotions or REF outputs. With no formal mechanism to pause an academic career, entrepreneurship can feel like a one-way door — particularly for women, who even today still shoulder the majority of caring responsibilities. A recognised, reversible pathway would make spinning out feel less risky.

Second, we argue for scaling what already works instead of endlessly piloting new schemes. Programmes such as Innovate UK’s ICURe show that salary-supported time and structured market discovery increase both spinout success and female participation. ICURe replaces informal, network-driven entrepreneurship with evidence-based customer discovery, yet remains heavily oversubscribed. Expanding proven programmes would do far more for access than creating a proliferation of small initiatives.

Third, the report calls for better data to expose hidden barriers. Current spinout statistics are patchy and over-aggregated, masking where women drop out. Requiring universities to publish gender-disaggregated data on equity, leadership and survival rates would allow much sharper diagnosis. The HESA Spinout Register is a step forward, but without demographic detail it cannot show who truly benefits.

As Juliet Gouldman, Director at Barclays Business Banking and a member of the Invest in Women Taskforce, wrote in her foreword:

“If we get this right, the UK wins: more world-class research translates into businesses, more high-quality jobs across the regions, and a stronger pipeline of diverse founders building solutions the world needs.”

I’ll end with a quote from the foreword of Seema Malhotra MP, Minister for Equalities: “If we are to deliver on our Mission for Growth, we cannot afford to leave any talent sitting on the sidelines.” Hear, hear!

Data Intelligence

James Titcomb at The Telegraph has given the Government’s £4.1 million AI Skills Hub a fairly robust kicking (paywall). You can make up your own mind by signing up here, but after having a look myself, I’m left wondering what exactly that £4.1 million was spent on.

By contrast, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, working with Number 10 Data Science, has just released an excellent public tracker for delivery of the AI Opportunities Action Plan. It clearly breaks down each commitment and shows which have been met — with progress currently standing at 76%. The Government should do this as standard for every major policy announcement.

Crossed Wires

Subscribers to our Policy Updates received a briefing on the back of a private roundtable dinner with the Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, which we hosted with Mishcon de Reya.

The overwhelming feeling around the table was not hostility to decarbonisation, but frustration with a system that has lost sight of cost, speed and integration. Britain has ended up with some of the cleanest electricity in the world, but also some of the most expensive — and that cost is increasingly incompatible with building and scaling companies here.

Expect more insights from these events. I think it’s the least we can do given that demand for these events often outstrips supply by a factor of fifteen.

Three Big Ideas #53

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

This week, Eamonn Ives unpacks a new economics paper on doing industrial policy better, Philip Salter discusses the economic impacts of entrepreneur mafias, and Mann Virdee argues that policymakers need to think hard about Britain’s grid connection conundra.

Fee Movement

Year after year after year — report after report after report — we have made the case that Britain’s exorbitant visa fees are a false economy: raising little compared to the economic damage caused by deterring talented individuals who would otherwise be contributing to the country’s coffers.

It was therefore pleasing to hear Rachel Reeves announce in Davos this week that the Government is planning to “reimburse visa fees for select trailblazers in deep tech sectors and those joining the most promising UK companies in priority sectors.” Some like to quote the line that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” but in the battle of ideas, persistence can pay off.

At our last count, we found it costs nearly seven times as much for a skilled worker to come to the UK for five years with a spouse and a dependant compared to Australia, more than 12 times as much as Canada, and over eighty-six times — yes! Eighty-six — as much as Germany.

As friend of the network Lauren Gilbert explained in a brilliant article last month, Britain’s visa fees reduce welfare and revenue because they are misaligned with the elasticity of migrant supply across income groups. Put simply, high-skilled workers have a lot more choice on where to move to, so fees matter more to them. This means the current system raises little revenue, fails to deter the migrants policymakers claim to worry about, all while discouraging those who generate the largest fiscal surplus.

For those paying attention, this has been trailed for months. While there is always an element of playing to the crowd, Rachel Reeves has repeatedly stated that she understands that access to talent is a big deal for entrepreneurs when addressing them.

The Chancellor, of course, is right to trade in a little income on fees so the best and brightest aren’t put off coming to the UK. It can’t be said enough that 54% of the UK’s fastest-growing companies have at least one foreign-born founder or co-founder.

Now there’s just the small matter of the four other policy recommendations from our most recent Job Creators report. Namely: protecting fast-track settlement for exceptional talent; reforming the Global Talent visa to attract world-class operators; making the Innovator Founder visa more functional; and designing a selective Spinout visa for graduates and academics.

Simons Says

It was recently revealed that the Government dropped its plans for mandatory digital ID in the UK. Regular readers will be all too familiar with my views on the potential of Britain as a digital state (the uninitiated might want to read this).

To be clear, a digital identity system doesn’t need to be mandatory to succeed. Instead, we just need to make it so useful and compelling that only those with particularly strong ideological objections choose to opt out. That strikes the right balance for the UK between being both a liberal society with an efficient state that actually works for people. (Critically, for those with fundamental concerns, a well-designed system offers stronger protections, clearer oversight and greater control over personal data than the status quo.)

This week I discussed this directly with Josh Simons MP, Minister for Digital Government and Data, and have since been approached by several people who have followed our work on this. This is a policy area we will now return to in earnest. If you are an expert, entrepreneur, or simply have a serious interest in digital identity, please do get in touch.

Get on Board

Over the next month we’ll be adding some new names to the Advisory Board of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Entrepreneurship. This is made up of business groups, trade bodies, advocacy groups, ecosystem bodies and research institutes. If that’s you and you want to get involved, drop Eamonn Ives an email.

Votes in Confidence

This week, Xero published a paper as part of their Financial Confidence Taskforce, which I was delighted to chair. It argues that Britain is missing out on a generation of startups because many would-be entrepreneurs lack financial literacy. The paper is intended to feed directly into the Government’s Maple Review.

As was reported by the Daily Mail, nearly two in five small business owners say they do not know whether they were profitable last month, with more than half struggling with cash flow management. Younger entrepreneurs were most doubtful of their financial management skills and knowledge, with 35% of 18–34 year-olds agreeing that they lack the financial skills needed to manage their business.

The report reflects the collective views of the expert Taskforce and is well worth reading in full, but I want to focus on a couple of themes close to my heart.

The first is bureaucracy. As the paper makes clear, complexity does not just impose administrative costs; it actively erodes confidence. Simplifying tax and regulation should therefore be seen not only as a deregulatory exercise, but as a confidence-building intervention for Britain’s entrepreneurs.

If I were in a position of power in a Government looking for a way to make a meaningful difference — while also winning the sizeable small business vote — I would promise to go some way to dismantling the bureaucratic state. As I’ve written before, this is possible.

That said, the paper also makes clear that there are ways to support business owners even within the current levels of bureaucracy.

Crucially, confidence is not a function of information alone; it is built through repeated practice in realistic settings. This brings us back to education. Our What Applied Learning Really Looks Like report with Young Enterprise argues that abstract teaching disengages pupils when they cannot see real-world relevance, and that confidence and capability emerge only when learning is applied in realistic contexts. There is a clear through-line from applied learning in childhood to entrepreneurial confidence in adulthood. Schools should embed financial and commercial reasoning early, before attitudes towards money, risk and work become fixed.

However, there will always be those for whom schooling does not provide these skills, which means we need to ensure that support is available later on. Xero’s Unlock Your Numbers programme is one example. But I would be keen to hear about other resources you think are essential. We will soon launch a carefully curated hub of places and people where entrepreneurs in our network can get help, and so might end up recommending your suggested resources to thousands of founders. Do drop me an email.

Every Ounce

In the latest instalment of our UK AI Fieldbook series, our Research Director Eamonn Ives spoke with Benedikt Thüngen, Co-Founder of Sanome, about how AI is helping clinicians avert medical crises before they arise.

In An Ounce of Prediction, which I recommend reading in full, the pair explore how AI could enable clinicians to identify serious health deterioration earlier — shifting healthcare from reactive treatment to preventative intervention — while also unpacking the practical, regulatory and policy challenges of scaling this kind of innovation within the NHS.

These interviews matter because they sit at the intersection of policy and entrepreneurial experience. They give founders space to explain their innovations in a level of detail rarely afforded elsewhere, while also surfacing the real-world constraints they face to help policymakers understand what is actually happening on the ground.

We are grateful to OpenAI for their support of the UK AI Fieldbook series. We are keen to expand it into other sectors and themes, so if you work for an organisation interested in supporting in-depth interviews of this kind, please get in touch.

Right Place

We believe in experimentation, which is why we are trialling two new event formats.

First, on 29 January, we will host a day of co-working for around 20 tech entrepreneurs at Fora: The Jellicoe. The day will begin with a 10am meetup, coffee and short introductions, but the intention is to allow serendipity to take the lead as participants work there for the day.

While this pilot is focused on tech entrepreneurs with employees, we plan to run similar sessions with different cohorts over the course of the year. Request a place here.

Second, on 24 February we’ll host an audience with the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP. There will be space for around 40 of our Patrons, Advisers and Supporters (join us here). Unlike a fireside chat where the chair gets to dominate, the bulk of the questions here will come directly from the great and the good in attendance.

You can submit your questions for Jeremy when you apply. Given he’s a successfully exited entrepreneur, I expect a few to cover business as well as politics. Request a place here.

Three Big Ideas #52

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

This week, Eamonn Ives makes the case for slightly deluded optimism, Philip Salter discusses how AI could challenge monopolists, and Labour Together’s James Howat sets out a plan to build Britain’s answer to Silicon Valley.

An Ounce of Prediction

In our latest interview for our UK AI Fieldbook series, Eamonn Ives speaks to Benedikt Thüngen about how AI is helping clinicians to avert medical crises before they arise.

High Networked Individuals

Entrepreneurial networks matter. Despite popular portrayals to the contrary, entrepreneurship is far less about cut-throat competition than it is about cooperation, shared knowledge and mutual support. This reality was reinforced by recent research we conducted with American Express for their Peer Power study.

Featured in The Times and City A.M. among others, you would be forgiven for taking the headline finding for granted: 94% of SME leaders in Britain believe that supporting their peers is critical to driving business success. Yet it’s easy to forget that most people aren’t business owners and don’t have close family members who run companies. For the majority, entrepreneurship remains something observed at a distance.

As a result, many people form their views about business through television and the mainstream media, which are more likely to present business through the lens of scandal than as a process of value creation. When entrepreneurship does appear on screen, it is often distorted and combative. A decade ago, 75% of entrepreneurs reported having a negative view of The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den — and there’s little reason to think that has materially changed. (That said, with fewer than half of 16–24-year-olds watching broadcast TV in an average week, the influence of these shows is already waning.)

But as everyone reading this will know, running a business is mostly about cooperation — whether that’s with employees, customers, suppliers or other founders. It makes business sense too. The Peer Power survey also found that 86% of those with strong networks said their businesses were profitable last year, compared with 66% of those with weaker networks.

The consequences of this framing are visible in public attitudes. According to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in British businesses stands at just 51%. More striking still, 70% of Britons hold a moderate or high grievance against business, government and the rich. Businesses are not widely seen as a good in themselves: as many as 88% say they have an obligation to provide good-paying local jobs, while 86% say they should train and reskill workers.

These tensions are reflected in founders’ own perceptions of the media. As our Out of Focus report showed, entrepreneurs overwhelmingly believe Britain’s media fails to represent entrepreneurship accurately or fairly. Coverage is seen as narrow and misaligned with founders’ priorities, with nearly three-quarters saying the issues that matter most to them are underreported. Too much attention is given to unicorns, funding rounds and sensational stories, and too little to the realities of building and sustaining a business.

And yet, despite all this, Edelman’s data also suggest that business remains the only UK institution seen as both competent and ethical overall. By contrast, government is viewed as incompetent and unethical, the media as unethical and not very competent, and NGOs as ethical but not very competent.

None of this means we should import wholesale a stereotypical American attitude to business. But it does suggest something important: entrepreneurs have played a critical role throughout history, and continue to do so today, largely through cooperation rather than conflict. Recognising that — in how we talk about business, report on it and understand it — would be a good place to start.

Call on You

Despite the plethora of consultations affecting businesses — which subscribers to our APPG for Entrepreneurship newsletter are alerted to each month — it’s rare for us to recommend that our network of thousands respond to one. After all, consultations take time, and they are not always the best use of it.

But HM Treasury’s Tax Support for Entrepreneurs: Call for Evidence is the exception that proves the rule. It was launched alongside the Budget and will remain open until 28 February.

We know from experience that tax is one of the most important issues for entrepreneurs in our network. This call for evidence seeks your views on the effectiveness of existing tax incentives, the wider tax system for founders and scaling firms, and how the UK can better support these companies to start, scale and stay in the UK.

You might, for example, have a view on how tax cliff edges affect real-world scaling decisions. Treasury officials may understand these in theory, but only entrepreneurs can explain how they shape their behaviour: delaying hiring, selling early, relocating headquarters, or avoiding certain investors altogether.

Or you might be able to shed light on what genuinely determines whether founders reinvest after a successful exit. Again, only entrepreneurs can explain the factors — both financial and non-financial — that drive reinvestment decisions.

Or perhaps you can explain whether Business Asset Disposal Relief — or Entrepreneurs’ Relief before it — meaningfully influences your behaviour. BADR is frequently debated, but rarely grounded in direct entrepreneurial testimony. The Treasury wants to know whether it actually affects decisions to start, grow, sell or reinvest.

You do not need to answer every question. What officials are looking for is first-hand experience (e.g. this happened to my company when we hit X threshold), behavioural insight (e.g. this policy changed how we hired, raised capital or exited), specific examples (e.g. we lost a senior hire because our equity offer was no longer competitive once we outgrew the relevant scheme), and clear causality (e.g. we did Y because of Z tax rule).

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Pulling Rank

Let’s start the year on a positive note. Not grounded in hope, but in data. Despite the challenges, the UK remains one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business. Across multiple independent rankings, produced by different institutions using different methodologies, the UK sits comfortably in the global top tier. We aren’t at the frontier on every single metric — but we’re very close on many.

On innovation, the UK ranks sixth globally in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index, which aggregates around 80 indicators — spanning institutions, human capital, infrastructure, market sophistication and innovation outputs. We perform especially well at turning innovation inputs into new technologies, creative goods and commercially viable ideas.

Caveats aside, Britain also leads in science. On the Nature Index, which tracks high-quality publications in leading journals, the UK ranks fourth globally. Four of the top five research institutions in Europe are British. On Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list, the UK ranks third worldwide, reflecting a deep concentration of researchers whose work sits in the global top 1%.

Britain is a magnet for top talent too. INSEAD’s Global Talent Competitiveness Index places the UK firmly among the world’s leaders. In the latest Times Higher Education Rankings, two of the global top five universities are British — Oxford ranked first and Cambridge joint third. The QS World University Rankings also place two institutions in the top five, with Imperial ranked second and Oxford joint fourth.

This depth of knowledge shows up in the structure of the economy itself. On Harvard’s Economic Complexity Index, the UK sits in the top tier of advanced economies. It captures how diversified and sophisticated a country’s exports are, which is a proxy for accumulated, hard-to-replicate productive knowledge. On the Government AI Readiness Index, the UK ranks second globally, behind only the United States. It highlights strong policy coordination out of Westminster, including the AI Opportunities Action Plan, alongside major research partnerships with the EU and US.

It is easier to run a company in the UK than in most other countries. The Global Business Complexity Index deems the UK to have one of the least complex business environments in the world, based on performance across 292 indicators covering tax, accounting, payroll, human resources and entity management.

By international standards, the UK also remains one of the most open services markets in the world. According to the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index, the UK ranks second overall among 51 economies analysed. London meanwhile ranks second globally in the Global Financial Centres Index. This depth of finance translates into scale: London attracted more VC investment in 2025 than Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Munich and Madrid combined, while the UK ranks fourth globally for unicorns on the Hurun Global Unicorn Index, behind only the United States, China and India.

It might not always feel like it, but the UK remains well governed. On the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index, it ranks fourteenth out of 143 countries analysed. For an economy built on services, contracts and intangible assets, that matters enormously. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index tells a similar story, placing the UK firmly within the “very clean” tier of public-sector environments.

These are not cherry-picked statistics. After reviewing around 70 international rankings, I filtered hard for robustness and relevance. Echoing our Research Director Eamonn Ives, there are always methodological criticisms to make with these kinds of rankings, but taken as a whole they paint a fair picture. On many of the hardest-to-build dimensions — innovation, research, services openness, finance and the rule of law — the UK consistently sits in the leading pack.

One could look at this wealth of evidence and conclude that everything is going swimmingly. To do so would be short-sighted. For a start, we aren’t the clear leaders in much, so there’s plenty of room for improvement in many areas. Second, competitor economies are swiftly catching up. Staying ahead of them now depends as much on new initiatives as on discipline. We need to double down on allowing existing strengths to compound, remove avoidable frictions and come up with innovative policies to lead the world. More on that in the year to come.

Three Big Ideas #51

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

This week, Eamonn Ives speaks up for free speech, Philip Salter opines on the innovation insights shed by 2025’s Nobel Prize in Economics winners, and Mann Virdee argues we need to broaden our skillsets in the changing economy.

‘Tis the Reason

Season’s Greetings! I promised myself that I wouldn’t end the year harping on about the dynamism-denting Employment Rights Bill, tempting as that is. Instead, let’s discuss some highlights, ways you can get more involved, and how you can support us in 2026.

Although we’ve taken to describing ourselves as a business group and community, we remain first – and probably foremost – a think tank. Our research is the bedrock of why we’re taken seriously. And 2025 was another feast for policy-minded readers. Of everything we published, here are three reports with the broadest appeal – ideal reading with a mince pie in hand.

In Ambition Unlimited, we captured the voices of young founders across the UK, showing that ambition alone isn’t enough. Outdated tax and investment incentives, burdensome regulation, and restrictive immigration rules are still holding back the next generation of innovators.

In Full Speed Ahead, we revealed that the UK’s accelerator and incubator landscape remains fragmented and often ineffective despite significant public investment – with weak evaluation, inconsistent standards and programmes that don’t always match what founders actually need.

Then finally in Job Creators 2025, we once again showed just how central international founders are to the UK’s fastest-growing companies. This year, 54% of Britain’s top 100 high-growth firms have at least one foreign-born founder. The report set out clear recommendations to ensure the UK stays open and attractive to the entrepreneurial talent that drives jobs, innovation and economic dynamism.

Ring Out

Our biggest internal innovation this year has been launching regular surveys of our network. Each wave has generated strong media coverage, but my favourite was this City A.M. piece arguing that government simply didn’t “get entrepreneurs.” Whether they’re now taking notice is ultimately for you to judge.

We genuinely couldn’t do this work without you. We want to grow this into a major strand of what we do, so if you’re an entrepreneur, please consider joining our survey panel. No one else can reach the founders in our network.

Claus for Thought

This year we moved our newsletters to Substack. Alongside Perennial Gale, we now regularly share ideas, analysis and interviews through Network Effects. For founders wanting timely insight into what’s emerging from Westminster that may shape your business, our Policy Updates have you covered, and Eamonn also provides a sharp, impartial monthly briefing through the APPG for Entrepreneurship newsletter.

If you fancy some thoughtful holiday reading, try my conversation with John Fingleton CBE, or our interview with Station F director Roxanne Varza — both rich with insight into how to support entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Room at the Inn?

We hosted 42 public events in 2025 – along with several private ones – to bring thousands of entrepreneurs together with front-benchers, back-benchers, advisers and civil servants from across the political spectrum.

When we started, we were happy just to see that people were willing to turn up to our events. Thankfully, that’s now the least of our worries – although we’re noticing that demand regularly outstrips supply, which creates problems of its own. We will never operate as a closed membership group – the best rooms require the most relevant people – but we will continue to reserve places for Advisers and Supporters (see below on how to join).

Wrapping Up

To close, here are five golden requests. I don’t expect everyone to do all of them – but if you can manage one or two, it would genuinely help our work.

First: join us for free as a Member. We now have more than 10,000 entrepreneurs in the network, and signing up helps us to understand what matters most to you. It also lets you express interest in writing for us or joining our private WhatsApp groups.

Second: we believe the UK can and should be the best place in the world to start and grow a business. If you agree, add your name to our Mission Statement.

Third: join our WhatsApp Community. We won’t inundate you, aiming to send an average of just one update a week, including sharing journalist requests directly with founders and the wider ecosystem.

Fourth: please share this newsletter. Believe it or not, there are still people out there who aren’t subscribed to this. We don’t have a budget to appear alongside the latest John Lewis or Coca-Cola Christmas adverts. Forwarding this to one or two people genuinely helps us grow.

Finally – the big one – consider becoming a Supporter, Adviser, Patron, or Corporate Partner. We know it’s not for everyone. If you’re just starting out or watching every pound, please don’t feel any pressure. But if £120 a year is manageable, and you value being part of a community that brings founders and the wider ecosystem together – while strengthening the environment for entrepreneurs across the UK – becoming a Supporter is a meaningful way to help that work continue, with priority access to our events along the way.

While we already have big plans for 2026, many of our best ideas come from our readers, so if you have thoughts on what we should do, or what we could do together, I’d love to hear from you.

Ultimately, our work is in service of entrepreneurs. Everything we do comes back to individual founders whose contributions to society are all too often underappreciated. Politicians can talk endlessly about growth, but entrepreneurs are the hinge on which progress swings.

This will be the last Perennial Gale of the year. But true to this newsletter’s name, we’ll be back on 2 January. For those who’ll miss our policy presents, join Network Effects to hear the three biggest ideas in entrepreneurship before the year is out.

Three Big Ideas #50

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

This week, Eamonn Ives goes in to bat for GDP, Mann Virdee reflects on reasons to be optimistic as we go into 2026, and James Graham of the Prosperity Institute argues that financial crime regulations are not fit for purpose.

No Country for Young Workers

Unemployment is back in the news. As John Burn-Murdoch has written in the Financial Times, the proportion of young people in the UK who are neither working, seeking work, in education nor raising children has doubled over the past decade. In The Telegraph, Tim Wallace shows that Britain has experienced the sharpest rise in youth unemployment across the G7. Rachel Wolf, meanwhile, describes how the lives of those on the margins of the labour market are being hollowed out.

Putting any pretence of false modesty aside for a moment, I predicted this would happen back in May.

All unemployment is bad, but youth unemployment is uniquely pernicious. Early-career joblessness leads to persistent earnings losses, skill depreciation and weaker attachment to the labour market that can last for decades. These scarring dynamics do not just harm individuals; they reduce business formation, slow productivity growth and raise the economy’s long-run unemployment rate. Youth unemployment is not just a cyclical inconvenience but a structural drag on entrepreneurial dynamism and growth.

This is partly why the Government has committed £820 million with the aim of supporting nearly one million young people into work. The plan is to create 350,000 workplace opportunities, expand Youth Hubs, and introduce a “Jobs Guarantee” offering fully funded, six-month placements for long-term unemployed 18-to-21-year-olds in high-need areas. For eligible businesses, the attraction is straightforward: taxpayers cover 100% of wages and training costs for these placements.

The Government will also spend a further £725 million to try to generate 50,000 new apprenticeships over the next three years. Here too, the incentives for eligible businesses are significant, with taxpayers covering 100% of training costs for apprentices under 25, removing the previous co-investment requirement.

Success in both cases will depend on employer take-up, whether placements resemble real jobs rather than holding patterns, and whether there is clear progression into unsubsidised employment.

The Government, however, is not doing itself any favours. Since coming to power, the Employer National Insurance Contribution changes announced at Labour’s first Budget are likely to fall largely on employees — through lower wages — and hardest on the young, who are more exposed to job losses and more likely to be priced out of low-productivity roles altogether.

In addition, from 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage (for those aged 21 and over) will rise to £12.71 an hour, while the minimum wage for 18-to-20-year-olds will jump to around £10.85 — an increase of roughly 8.5%. Rates for under-18s and apprentices will also rise to around £8 an hour. It is possible to strike a balance on minimum wages without causing excessive unemployment, but when the Labour-aligned Resolution Foundation is warning that the increase for 18-to-20-year-olds is “unnecessarily big”, and risks making it harder for them to find work, alarm bells should be ringing.

Then there is the Employment Rights Bill, which remains far from settled. While the shift away from day-one unfair dismissal rights toward a six-month qualifying period is welcome, it still risks making employers more cautious about taking on new staff — particularly young and inexperienced workers.

And there is still plenty more to be concerned about in the Bill. Under current law, compensation for unfair dismissal is capped at the lower of 52 weeks’ pay or a statutory maximum (around £118,000). The original proposal was to remove this cap entirely – a move rejected this week by the House of Lords. Unlimited awards would significantly increase the tail risk of hiring, especially in sectors like tech, where startups must compete on pay with large firms but lack the HR capacity to manage legal risk. For some of our most innovative firms, this risk would be existential.

Alongside this sit expanded union ballot and recognition rules, enhanced protections around industrial action and a range of other changes that, taken together, would make many business owners markedly more reluctant to hire if passed in their current form.

This is not to dismiss the importance of worker protections — but there is a balance to be struck. Our latest Entrepreneurs Survey provides one of the clearest signals yet of how the UK’s most ambitious founders view the Employment Rights Bill. Among those aware of the legislation, 80% believe it will have a negative impact on the economy, with more than 40% expecting the impact to be “very negative”. Just 4% believe it will have a positive effect.

The Government can’t say they weren’t warned.

Reckoned With

The Invest in Women Taskforce has published its annual report, and the headline is that the fund has now reached £635 million in commitments from institutions including Barclays, M&G, BGF, Aviva, Morgan Stanley, Nationwide and the British Business Bank.

The funding is designed to work on two fronts. Around £270 million will support the pipeline of female fund managers, enabling them to invest in female and mixed-gender founding teams. The remaining £365 million will be deployed directly by institutional investors into those companies.

The Entrepreneurs Network also gets a mention in the report for our work on angel investment, highlighting both regional disparities and the growing – though still limited – participation of women angels.

Read it in full here.

Humanity’s Hallmark

If you haven’t yet signed our Mission Statement, you can do so here. We’ll publish the first set of names in the new year, and continue adding to it over the months, years and decades ahead. Our mission is Sisyphean — and that is precisely why it matters.

On Your Marks

I’m delighted to share that Mark McCormack, Founder and co-CEO of Talking Tables, has joined us as an Adviser. Mark brings over 25 years of experience growing Talking Tables to a £20m+ turnover international business.

Mark is already providing a wealth of knowledge on policies around exporting and trade tariffs. He believes, like us, that entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the UK economy, and that we help facilitate getting entrepreneurs heard by Westminster. Get in touch if you’re keen to find out more about becoming an Adviser in 2026.

What We Believe

This week, prompted by a rather contentious LinkedIn post from Johann Nordhus Westarp, Sifted’s Martin Coulter asks the question: Can you be left-wing and an ‘elite founder’?

In his article, Coulter quotes our latest Entrepreneurs Survey, which revealed that founders have shifted their political allegiances slightly in the last few months towards the Conservatives and Reform (although it’s worth pointing out that the margins are still very tight).

I’ve managed to hold myself back from writing a diatribe on political economy — for today at least — because I figured it would be more constructive to set out what we as an organisation fundamentally believe.

This idea came from a discussion with our newest Adviser, Richard Browning, who launched the world’s first human jet suit, and who is the first signatory to our mission statement. This is a public pronouncement, which we’re encouraging all of our supporters to put their names to. You don’t need to be an entrepreneur to sign this — just someone who shares our worldview. So, are you with us?

A hallmark of humanity is our desire to solve problems. When we do that through markets — by creating new goods, services and ways of doing things — we call it entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful engines of productivity and progress. Throughout history, entrepreneurial ventures have transformed societies, lifting people from subsistence to prosperity.

Entrepreneurs pioneer new ideas, create jobs and drive the breakthroughs that raise living standards — not only today, but for generations to come. Supporting and nurturing entrepreneurship is essential if we are to live healthier, happier and more meaningful lives.

But progress doesn’t happen by accident. It is shaped by the choices made every day by entrepreneurs and by those who support them — their teams, mentors, investors, and the wider ecosystem.

And while the entrepreneurial impulse may be innate, its success depends on the environment around it. Entrepreneurs need the right laws, regulations, institutions, incentives, infrastructure, talent, capital and culture to thrive.

We believe the United Kingdom can and should be the best place in the world to start and grow a business.

Out of Focus

Most people — including, and perhaps most importantly, most politicians — have never run a business. That’s why the way journalists cover entrepreneurship really matters.

With support from Pathos Communications, we surveyed founders across our network to understand how they view the media’s portrayal of Britain’s startup ecosystem.

In Out of Focus, we found that five times as many founders disagree (60%) as agree (12%) that journalists do a good job of covering entrepreneurship. Most also said they had seen no improvement in the quantity or quality of coverage in recent years. And nearly three quarters feel that the issues that matter most to them get too little attention, compared with just 6% who feel they receive enough.

Alongside the quantitative data, founders shared their views in their own words. Many want the media to look beyond London-based, high-valuation tech stories and pay more attention to the everyday — and often unglamorous — realities of building a business. Others feel the tone around success and wealth creation could be fairer, and that journalists would benefit from a deeper understanding of entrepreneurship. There is also strong appetite for broader representation: across sectors, regions, backgrounds and stages of growth.

This isn’t intended as a broadside against the broadsheets. Founders were conscious of their own shortcomings too: while 30% feel entrepreneurs present themselves well in the media, 36% do not. And if you’re a journalist reading this, you’re already demonstrating a deep interest in entrepreneurship. Perhaps the main takeaway is that entrepreneurs still believe the media matters. Journalists continue to shape how policymakers, investors and the public understand risk-taking, innovation and economic dynamism.

The report — and its launch in the House of Lords — has already generated productive discussion on LinkedIn. We’re now speaking with several journalists about how we can help constructively bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and the media. Those in our WhatsApp community will know we’re already doing this by sharing live opportunities from journalists – so if you haven’t joined yet, now’s the time to do so.

Three Big Ideas #49

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

This week, Philip Salter discusses our latest research on how founders think about national media, Eamonn Ives urges HMRC to follow America’s lead when it comes to tax transparency, and Mann Virdee ponders how AI is altering the hiring landscape.

Speculative Bubbles

We’re all stuck in our own bubbles. Try as we might, we’re naturally drawn to people who share our views, backgrounds or interests. So when the Budget landed this week, I realised that I sit roundly in two bubbles that saw it very differently: the entrepreneurship ecosystem bubble and the economics bubble.

First, the entrepreneurial ecosystem bubble. Viewed through this lens (to mix my metaphors), the Chancellor – advised by the incisive and indomitable Alex Depledge, the Treasury’s first Entrepreneurship Adviser – absolutely delivered. Depledge’s Entrepreneurship in the UK prospectus closely reflects many of the priorities of high-growth founders. As I wrote in our snap response: “The doubling of Enterprise Management Incentive allowances and the expansion of the Enterprise Investment Scheme stand out as a clear response from the Government to calls from entrepreneurs.”

We were also pleased to see some movement on the Stamp Duty Reserve Tax. As our Research Director Eamonn Ives explains: “[It] is an international outlier and a relic of a bygone age. It depresses share prices, increases the cost of capital and adds friction to our beleaguered markets.” In the next Budget, as argued in Backing Breakthrough Businesses, the Government should just scrap the whole tax.

Arguably the most underappreciated announcement was around procurement. Public procurement makes up around 15% of UK GDP, which makes it one of the largest single levers the state controls. It should be driving innovation – but it isn’t.

Announcements to expand Advance Market Commitments, the creation of an Innovation Marketplace to fast-track innovative solutions, and the appointment of Procurement Innovation Champions across all departments, all sound encouraging. It’s about time a government started thinking creatively about how to harness procurement’s power.

But we – including many reading this – really need to come together to understand why public procurement is so bureaucratic and how to unpick it. We aren’t the only country to suffer from this, though many countries do procurement better. Fundamentally, it can’t just be about layering the above on top of the current system; we need a genuine reset.

Finally, the Call for Evidence on Tax Support for Entrepreneurs, which launched alongside the Budget, is a welcome way to keep the conversation and momentum going. As well as looking at current schemes, you’ll have the chance to contribute ideas on things like how the government can strengthen the investment pipeline, why exited founders do or do not reinvest, and whether Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR) is effective. I expect we’ll be integrating some of these questions into our Entrepreneurs Survey, so do let us know if you’re keen to partner on this work.

Now to the second bubble: the economics bubble. As a think tank, we’re grounded in and by economics, and it’s fair to say that most economists weren’t overly enamoured with the Chancellor’s Budget.

The Economist was eloquently blunt (paywall): “The tax-and-spend party has taxed and spent,” and “The state has never been so expensively funded, yet seemed so tired.” Paul Johnson, formerly of the IFS, spoke for many in the profession (paywall). I would summarise him and others as criticising big tax rises without reform, debt still rising, a barely better-than-even chance of meeting the fiscal target, repeated U-turns on tax and welfare, and an overall sense of a government lacking strategy and direction.

I won’t try to thread the needle here. It’s possible for a Budget to contain strong micro-level reforms that help entrepreneurs while still falling short on the foundational reforms that underpin growth. As we argued in Building Blocks:

“While remedying small issues can be important, there’s a danger that too much attention in policymaking is afforded to them, while more fundamental problems go unchecked. We contend that even marginal policy improvements in any of these bigger areas – from simplifying our country’s planning rules, to rationalising the tax code, to modernising the visa system – will do more to ensure we are genuinely offering the best possible platform from which to unleash the full potential of entrepreneurship and innovation in Britain.”

Finally, these lenses ignore others. As Enterprise Nation reveals in the reaction from some of the more than 150,000 small business owners they support, there are concerns about rising costs, squeezed margins, frozen thresholds, tax pressures, wage pressures and a lack of growth measures. Similarly, in his weekly must-read newsletter (sign up here), Beauhurst’s Henry Whorwood states:

“[I]f you’re starting a business that doesn’t fit the equity and grant funding model, you’re left out in the cold. Indeed, you are clobbered with onerous employee rights, minimum wage increases, and record employer NI contributions. Instead of ever more fine-grained interventions, we need to make it easier and cheaper to create jobs in every sector.”

I managed to avoid the tired framing of this being “the good, the bad and the ugly” Budget. Nor did I call it “a tale of two Budgets.” But there’s a reason these idioms are as hackneyed as they are.

It’s up to you to decide which bubble you’re in, and which lens matters most.
Rights Call

I’ll keep this brief. It’s good to see the government scrap the plan to give workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from their first day in a job. Reducing the qualifying period from the current two years to six months is a compromise employers can live with. But while this was the worst part of the draft bill, there’s a lot more they’ll need to unpick. Drop me a message if you’d like to be involved.

Cometh the Hour

I’m delighted to share that Dr Mann Virdee has joined us as a Senior Researcher. Before joining The Entrepreneurs Network, Mann led the Council on Geostrategy’s work exploring how the United Kingdom can build a more competitive and resilient science and technology base. He previously worked at RAND Europe, the UK Parliament, and the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and IMF.

Mann’s research has covered areas such as AI, energy, infrastructure, quantum computing, R&D, 5G, space, the life sciences, civil service reform and Foreign Direct Investment. Drop him an email here, follow him on X here, and connect with him on LinkedIn here.