This week saw a bonanza of policy announcements during London Tech Week. So many that this morning we put out a Policy Update on the main things you need to know so I wouldn’t have to bombard you with them all now. Alongside the policy, we’ve also seen some major private sector investments announced, showing that our capital city still has the power to attract serious capital.
But are we telling the world the most compelling story we can about London — and the country more broadly? It’s the theme of our latest survey, which closes soon. Your views will be fed directly to those who matter. If you want to help us make the UK the best place to start and grow a business, ten minutes filling in our survey is one of the most efficient ways to do it. (The most efficient way is to share it with a group of like-minded founders so they can amplify your ideas.)
It’s your insights that inspire our reports, events and campaigns. Here’s how it happens.
First, conversations with entrepreneurs have driven our case across numerous reports for cutting the cost of visas. As detailed in our write-up, the Government has now launched a Visa Fees Reimbursement Scheme for Scale-Ups. Qualifying firms in clean energy, life sciences, and digital and technology can claim back up to £5,000 per employee — dependants included — and £25,000 a year per business in visa application fees for specialist hires recruited through the Skilled Worker, Global Talent or Scale-up routes. While these reforms are too restrictive, the message has clearly landed.
Second, as reported in our Policy Update:
“The AI Minister announced a new partnership between the Regulatory Innovation Office and the Health and Safety Executive to produce the first guidance on advanced robotics in the workplace. They will work with industry to deliver regulatory clarity for collaborative robots. This follows our roundtable with the Regulatory Innovation Office in May, in which founders said that pre-market guidance from the Health and Safety Executive would be valuable.”
Relatedly, the Regulatory Innovation Office, working with the Office for Product Safety and Standards, is convening a small, invite-only roundtable later this summer for companies working on consumer robotics — domestic appliances through to humanoids. The session will bring together innovators and senior UK regulators to discuss real-world regulatory and standards challenges, and how regulation can better support innovation. Drop Mann an email if you’re keen.
And third, a few weeks ago, after we reported that G-Cloud’s financial tests are blocking innovative scaleups, a number of politicians who read Perennial Gale got in touch to be connected to the founders affected. This week, we heard that officials are softening their position and the founders’ G-Cloud rejections have been overturned. Credit where it’s due. To its credit, the government has acted swiftly.
It’s not just robots, and it’s not just tech. We exist to be the bridge between all entrepreneurs and policymakers. Help us help you by telling us what you need.
Head Start
Education policy is largely impenetrable. Even when the government announces the right ideas, nothing much changes in practice for many schools, colleges and universities.
But just because the state lacks capacity, it doesn’t mean we need to fail the next generation. There is a lot of great work being done by self-driven educators as well as charities and private companies with limited input from Whitehall. We’ve worked with many of them.
To that end, we’re building a small group made up of people already helping the next generation become more innovative, entrepreneurial and enterprising. There will, of course, be a policy angle to the discussions, but as much as anything it will be about connecting those who are already building the future. Email me if you want to get involved.
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New Signing
I’m delighted to share that Ian Ng has joined us as a Researcher. He comes from Parliament, where he focused on innovation and technology policy. His work so far has covered AI regulation, emerging technology, the energy use of AI, and innovation funding. Connect with and follow him here.
Tender Spot
Our friends at Startup Coalition are currently researching a report into the barriers startups and scaleups face selling to government and are looking for case studies of different challenges startups have encountered. If you’re keen to be involved, drop Edd Elliott an email.
What’s Up
Our WhatsApp community has grown organically to over 750 people — yet only 5% of you are in it. So what are you missing? Perhaps the most useful thing is our occasional media opportunities. Just yesterday we posted this from a journalist writing for a national newspaper and we got some great replies from a few incredible founders:
“A journalist is looking for entrepreneurs whose disability has become a genuine edge in their business — something specific to the work itself. The story that sparked it is of a blind yoga teacher who finds she can describe poses, and how they should feel, far better than any sighted teacher could. (NB. They’ve covered ADHD and dyslexia separately, so they’re after something different this time.) If someone springs to mind — or it’s you — drop a line to press@tenentrepreneurs.org and we’ll forward it on.”
Join the group here. Any journalists reading this are welcome to send me their requests.