Chancellor John Healey has said Britain must do more to ensure its best entrepreneurs, investors and technology companies can start, scale and stay in the UK, warning that too much talent and capital has historically been lost overseas.
In a new intervention following his growth speech last week, Healey said Britain has “world-class talent and ideas” but that promising founders have too often felt they needed to leave the country to secure the investment required to grow.
He warned that when entrepreneurs go elsewhere, the jobs, investment and economic opportunities they create risk going with them too.
Healey said:
“Encouraging innovation in Britain is key to our success in the years ahead.”
He pointed to the Government’s plan for new sandboxing powers, designed to let companies test and deploy emerging technologies more quickly across the economy. The Chancellor has said the aim is to have those powers ready next year so that businesses working at the technological frontier can invest and scale in Britain.
AI at the centre of Labour’s growth strategy
Healey also placed artificial intelligence firmly at the centre of Labour’s economic agenda.
He said AI presented “an incredible opportunity for Britain” but stressed that the technology also created international challenges requiring international cooperation and proper safeguards.
The Government has already launched a £100 million Sovereign AI procurement programme aimed at helping British AI companies develop tools for public services, including healthcare, cybersecurity and national security.
Healey has also highlighted the creation of the AI Economics Institute, which the Government says will build the evidence base on how AI affects productivity, labour markets and long-term economic growth. In his recent growth speech, he said Britain must seize the opportunities of AI while ensuring the technology does not develop without oversight.
Opening AI Economics Institute to G7 partners
Healey said Britain was also seeking to strengthen international cooperation on AI.
The Government has announced plans to open the AI Economics Institute to cooperation with G7 countries, part of a wider effort to shape common approaches to the economic consequences of artificial intelligence.
The Chancellor’s responsibilities include leading UK economic and financial policy at the G7 and G20, making the international dimension of Britain’s AI strategy an increasingly important part of his portfolio.
Entrepreneurs get a direct line into Treasury
Healey made the comments after meeting founders, investors and entrepreneurs alongside Alex Depledge MBE, the Treasury’s Entrepreneurship Adviser.
Depledge has been reappointed to the role to advise the Chancellor on barriers facing high-growth businesses and help ensure entrepreneurs have a stronger voice inside government.
The Government says the role is intended to help identify what prevents companies from starting and scaling in Britain and to feed those concerns directly into Treasury decision-making.
That reflects Healey’s wider ambition to double the number of UK unicorn companies and give British businesses better access to finance, infrastructure and regulatory support.
Government-business partnership
The Chancellor’s intervention follows a wider Downing Street push to strengthen the relationship between government and business.
Healey met leading chief executives this week to discuss investment, productivity and the barriers preventing companies from expanding. Business leaders raised issues including planning, regulation, energy connections and tax certainty.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has also called for a “culture shift” in Britain’s relationship with business, with government acting as a partner to entrepreneurs and investors rather than simply a regulator.
Keeping British innovation in Britain
The central challenge for Healey is ensuring that British ideas translate into British jobs and investment.
His message is that the UK already produces world-leading entrepreneurs, scientists and technology companies, but government must create the conditions that allow them to grow without having to relocate abroad for capital or opportunity.
For Labour, that means combining investment, lighter and faster regulation, stronger access to finance and international cooperation on AI — with the aim of making Britain one of the best places in the world to start and scale a high-growth business.
