Philip Salter
Deep Impact
Deep Impact
Philip Salter
Take AIM
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Philip Salter
Britain's Lost Talent
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Britain's Superpower
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Philip Salter
Back to Basics
Back to Basics

Parliamentary Snapshot 2017: Press Coverage

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Together with YouGov and Bircham Dyson Bell LLP, we looked at what MPs thought would be the impact of various Brexit deal scenarios for entrepreneurs. We asked a sample of Conservative and Labour MPs what deal they believe will be best for Britain’s innovators. The results are in and it looks like interesting reading. And the media thought so too…

Hard Brexit will be Good for Entrepreneurs, say two-thirds of Tory MPs (The Times: The Brief)

Politicians Could use a Business Lesson from UK Entrepreneurs (City AM)

Two-thirds of Tory MPs think UK Entrepreneurs Would Benefit from a Hard Brexit (Elite Business)

British Entrepreneurs Have Choice of Hard Brexit or High Taxes (Forbes)

MPs Need to be More Enterprising to win the Hearts of Innovators (Adam Smith Blog)

In case you didn’t read the report, here’s a summary.

Tories overwhelmingly (66%) want a ‘Hard Brexit, Labour want to remain in the EU – only 8% of Labour MPs want a ‘Hard Brexit’. And this is puts the MPs at loggerheads with their leadership
Almost a third of Labour MPs think decreasing business taxes would be bad for entrepreneurship, compared to 0% of Conservatives.

Two-thirds (66%) of Tory MPs, but just 8% of Labour MPs, thought a “hard” Brexit would be best for entrepreneurship in the UK. That’s the finding of a new YouGov poll of MPs, commissioned by The Entrepreneurs Network and Bircham Dyson Bell, released today.

In contrast, over two-thirds (71%) of Labour MPs thought it would be positive for entrepreneurship if we remain in the EU, with just 10% of Conservative MPs thinking it would be positive. The stark differences between Conservative and Labour elected politicians show the different moods that exist within the House of Commons and stand in contrast to the positions of their leaders.

This is the fourth annual Parliamentary Snapshot produced by The Entrepreneurs Network and Bircham Dyson Bell. As in previous years, Labour MPs are more likely to favour supporting schemes that come with increased government spending, while Tory MPs favour cutting taxes.

The greatest divergence between the two main parties was on the question of whether lowering personal taxes would be good for entrepreneurship in the UK. While 91% of Conservative MPs thought it would have a positive effect, just 26% of Labour MPs thought likewise, with 30% thinking it would be negative for entrepreneurship.

However, the parties are more united in their support for making it easier for entrepreneurs to move to the UK (79% of MPs are positive and just 4% negative), as well as making it easier to hire skilled workers from abroad (62% of MPs are positive and 14% negative). 70% of Labour MPs support making it easier for firms to hire skilled workers from abroad, up from 53% when we first undertook this survey in 2014. Half (50%) of Conservative MPs support making it easier for firms to hire skilled workers from abroad, up from 40% in 2014.

When asked what they thought about specific initiatives MPs were also aligned, with Business Rates Relief getting positive responses from 78% of all MPs, Enterprise Zones saw support from 75% of respondents and 70% favourable to the Regional Growth Fund.

Although we have seen improvements in knowledge among MPs, large numbers of the schemes remain unknown. Over half, 54%, of the MPs have never heard of Venture Capital Trusts or don’t know enough about it to know whether it’s effective, while 61% have either never heard of the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) or don’t know enough about it to know whether it’s effective. SEIS offers tax relief on investing in smaller companies and is seen as critical for entrepreneurship in the UK.

Radio Jarvis

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Once a week I do the papers review on Sam Delaney’s Drive programme on talkRADIO. Sam and I mull over the day’s big stories and the amusing ones…

This Week: 

This week I discuss childhood obesity, Toby Young’s appointment and the NHS. Click here for the link! Start listening at 3m 40secs from 4.30-5pm! (03/01/18)

Previous:

This week I discuss alien invasions, Brexit (of course), Donald Trump’s visit to the UK and whether Facebook is a publisher. Click here for the link. I’m on from 4.30-5pm. And I start at 4m 55 secs! (13/12/2017)

The Budget: Everything Entrepreneurs Need to Know

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Tax

  • VAT registration threshold will be maintained at the current level of £85,000 for two years from April 2018.
  • Reducing business rates by £2.3 billion over the next 5 years

Access to Finance

The Budget announces an action plan to unlock over £20 billion of patient capital investment to finance growth in innovative firms over 10 years by:

  • Doubling the annual allowance for people investing in knowledge-intensive companies through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the annual investment those companies can receive through EIS and the Venture Capital Trust scheme, and introducing a new test to reduce the scope for and redirect low-risk investment. 
  • The British Business Bank will seed the first wave of investment with up to £500 million, unlocking double its investment in private capital. Up to three waves will be launched, supporting a total of up to £4 billion investment; backing new and emerging fund managers through the British Business Bank’s established Enterprise Capital Fund programme, unlocking at least £1.5 billion of new investment;  backing overseas investment in UK venture capital through the Department for International Trade, expected to unlock £1 billion of investment.
  • The Pensions Regulator will clarify guidance on investments with long-term investment horizons. With over £2 trillion in UK pension funds, small changes in investment have the potential to transform the supply of capital to innovative firms.
  • Changing the qualifying rules in Entrepreneurs’ Relief to remove the disincentive to accept external investment and consulting on the detailed implementation of that change.
  • Launching a National Security Strategic Investment Fund to invest in advanced technologies to contribute to the national security mission.
  • The British Business Bank will also support developing clusters of business angels outside London through a new commercial investment programme.
  • The government will support businesses to get the finance they need by extending the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee to March 2022 and expanding the programme to support up to £500 million of loans per annum. 

Travel

  • Both short-haul and long-haul Air Passenger Duty rates will remain frozen for economy passengers will be frozen. The rates for premium economy, business and first class will, however, increase by £16 and for those travelling by private jet by £47.

Economy

  • GDP downgraded to 1.4%, 1.3% & 1.5% in subsequent years before rising to 1.6% in 2021-22
  • Growth forecast for 2017 downgraded from 2% to 1.5%
  • Productivity growth & business investment also revised down
  • Annual rate of CPI inflation forecast to fall from peak of 3% towards 2% target later this year
  • £3bn set aside for Brexit preparations
  • Another 600,000 people forecast to be in work by 2022

Education and skills

  • £600 to schools and colleges for every extra pupil who decides to take Maths or Further Maths A levels or Core Maths.
  • £27m to expand the successful Teaching for Mastery maths programme into a further 3,000 schools.
  • £84m to fund 8,000 computer science teachers by the end of this Parliament.

Tech

  • Introduction of further ground-breaking approaches to regulatory frameworks for AI and driverless cars, in order to attract the world’s most innovative companies
  • Backing innovators and investing in R&D – the government has already committed to the biggest increase in R&D spending by any government in the last 40 years. The Budget invests a further £2.3 billion in R&D in 2021-22 from the NPIF, and increases the R&D expenditure credit to 12%, demonstrating clear progress towards the government’s ambition to raise the level of investment in R&D in the economy to 2.4% of GDP. This means that, based on current forecasts, total support for R&D will increase by a third by 2021-22.
  • The government will create a new Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation to enable and ensure safe, ethical and ground-breaking innovation in AI and data-driven technologies. This world-first advisory body will work with government, regulators and industry to lay the foundations for AI adoption, which estimates suggest could benefit households across the UK by up to £2,300 per year by 2030, and increase GDP by 10%. The government will invest over £75 million to take forward key recommendations of the independent review on AI, including exploratory work to facilitate data access through ‘data trusts’. The government will create new AI fellowships, and initially fund 450 PhD researchers, to secure the UK’s leading position in the global AI market.
  • Regulators’ Pioneer Fund – To help unlock the potential of emerging technologies, the government will establish a new £10 million Regulators’ Pioneer Fund. This will help regulators to develop innovative approaches aimed at getting new products and services to market.
  • Tech Nation – To secure the UK’s world-leading position in digital innovation, the government will invest £21 million over the next 4 years to expand Tech City UK’s reach – to become ‘Tech Nation’ – and support regional tech companies and start-ups to fulfil their potential. Tech Nation will roll out a dedicated sector programme for leading UK tech specialisms, including AI and FinTech. Regional hubs will be located in: Cambridge, Bristol and Bath, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds and Sheffield, Reading, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow, Belfast, and Cardiff.
  • The government will provide a further £1 million to extend the UK Games Fund until 2020, aiding access to finance and business support for early stage video game developers.
  • Geospatial data – The UK has some of the best geospatial data in the world, and much of it is held by public bodies. The potential economic value of this data is huge. To maximise the growth of the digital economy and consolidate the UK’s position as the best place to start and grow a digital business, the government will establish a new Geospatial Commission to provide strategic oversight to the various public bodies who hold this data. To further boost the digital economy, the government will work with the Ordnance Survey (OS) and the new Commission, by May 2018, to establish how to open up freely the OS MasterMap data to UK-based small businesses in particular, under an Open Government Licence or through an alternative mechanism, while maintaining the OS’s strategic strengths. The Budget provides £40 million a year over the next two years to support this work.

Immigration

  • To support its ambitions on innovation and R&D, the government is encouraging the best and the brightest international scientific and research talent to work in the UK. The government will: change immigration rules to enable world-leading scientists and researchers endorsed under the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route to apply for settlement 47 after three years; make it quicker for highly-skilled students to apply to work in the UK after finishing their degrees; and reduce red tape in hiring international researchers and members of established research teams, by relaxing the labour market test and allowing the UK’s research councils and other select organisations to sponsor researchers. This is alongside the expansion of the exceptional talent route, benefiting current and future leaders in the digital technology, science, arts and creative sectors.

Richard Hilton, Founder of Gymbox at the Leap 100 Breakfast

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Gymbox founder Richard Hilton stumbled upon the idea for his company as a skinny 19-year-old living in New York and working in advertising, as we found out at a recent Leap 100 roundtable.

He wanted to bulk up. “The Americans were having a lot more success with women than I was because they were all huge,” he explained. He signed up to a gym, but was uninspired and lost enthusiasm after three months. Then he came across Crunch…

Check out Philip’s full article for City AM here!

Stamp It Out

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Check out our weekly e-bulletin for Philip’s comments on why Stamp Duty is gumming up the UK housing market, and how this is affecting entrepreneurs. Also in our there we’ve got news & views and upcoming events.

Also if you get in touch with me if you want to feature in my latest Inc. article and you’re either working in an industry that entrepreneurs are trying to shake up. Or if you’re one of those entrepreneurs, trying to shake up an industry adverse to change.

Party On!

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Party Conferences aren’t for everyone. For the politically unaffiliated, they can be rather weird – a little like attending a Star Trek convention when the extent of your sci-fi interest is Doctor Who.

Yet, Party Conferences matter. It’s the annual ritual where Westminster’s bubble is temporarily popped, as politicians face their party’s base outside of London. It’s also an opportunity for those in business to get a reading on the changing political landscape…

Read the full e-bulletin here

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