It’s no secret that the UK has a long-term growth and productivity problem.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) recently revised its GDP growth forecast for 2025 downward, from 2% to 1%, reflecting the negative impact of domestic business policies and the continued instability in global markets.
Against this backdrop, the government – like so many before it – has placed high-growth startups at the core of the UK’s economic recovery, aiming to create innovative new businesses today that can become world-leading, productive businesses of the future.
This is a laudable aim, but one that will come to nothing unless the UK reassess its attitude to risk.
Despite entrepreneurship being a more widely accepted career path, government policies focused on supporting founders and improving access to capital have not led to a corresponding increase in the number of people founding scalable businesses....