Demystifying the policy landscape — key insights from the ScaleUp Institute

The UK Government has continued to develop policy in recent years aimed at driving forward growth — from the AI Opportunities Action Plan to the Modern Industrial Strategy and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth plan. However, for the UK’s scaling businesses, it’s not always clear how these policies practically support them and address the specific challenges that they face.

To cut through the noise, we recently hosted a digital roundtable with Josh Robson, Chief Policy Officer at the ScaleUp Institute. In his role, Josh works closely with both government and the private sector, taking a data-driven approach to understanding the current landscape and identifying scaleup challenges. 

For our network of ambitious, owner-managed businesses, the discussion was an opportunity to better understand the policies that matter to them, uncover some of the challenges that they face from a regional and sectoral perspective and learn how they can access and influence the support that’s available.

Marcus Armstrong tells us more.

Three key takeaways at a glance 

1. £2tn is generated by just 44,000 businesses 

Scaling businesses are key drivers of our economy — however, they face unique challenges in their growth journey that supersede sector-based challenges.
 

2. Opportunity doesn’t start & end with technology

Showcasing where the growth opportunities are in different regions is how you build investor pipelines. This isn’t just limited to technology companies — in the North, retail, construction and advanced manufacturing are where many of the real growth opportunities lie.
 

3. Local government needs to hear from businesses

The way that businesses are captured by broad brush policy isn’t always consistent. Addressing specific challenges — by region and sector — requires direct engagement with city councils to tailor policy to local business needs.

 

The businesses that are driving our economy

We kicked off the conversation with interesting data about the scaleup landscape in the UK. Josh highlighted that substantial economic activity comes from scaling SME and mid-market businesses, with over £2tn being generated by 44,000 businesses alone. 

Defined as enterprises growing more than 20% in turnover or employment or both, scaleup businesses are resilient, innovative and have international appeal. However, they face specific challenges around talent, market access and capital that can block them from reaching their full potential. Often, these specific challenges will mean that scaling businesses from different sectors will have more in common with each other than their non-fast growth peers.

Tapping into the real growth opportunities

When looking at the geography of these scaleup businesses, Josh noted that around 9,300 are based in the North of England. Despite the majority of national policy focusing on frontier technology sectors, this business population reflects that the biggest growth opportunities are often also found in more traditional sectors like retail and construction, as well as in advanced manufacturing or the creative industries.

Josh highlighted that to build investor pipelines and grow the ecosystem, regions need to showcase growing businesses in these sectors and spotlight where the opportunities are. This resonated with our participants who also reminded us that for diverse founders, accessing this support is even tougher. 

Beyond this, some sectors don’t receive the same level of attention from many Venture Capitalists (VCs) as they have less experience of these sectors and the challenges that they face  Getting policy to work for businesses in the North means pinpointing exactly where the opportunities lie and spelling out the challenges to grow support networks.

Local engagement

A further key insight from Josh was that while many scaling businesses are in support of national policies like the Industrial Strategy for growth, many are sceptical about if they’ll be successfully delivered. This is because the way that businesses are captured by broad brush policy isn’t always consistent and they don’t speak to the very specific challenges that high-growth businesses face.

One question we received from a network member was about how immigration consultation will impact talent. This is especially relevant in the North, where 60% of scaleups employ people from overseas. This is a great example of a specific challenge that should shape local policy — and practical engagement is part of the answer here.

Josh highlighted that city regions like Liverpool are fantastic at championing growth and finding pools of money to progress this but need business voices to better allocate resources. Greater collaboration will also help to blur the border between great Northern cities to ensure that a business in Sheffield or Liverpool has the same visibility and access to resources as those within the Golden Triangle. 

Josh stressed that now is the time to engage as businesses are increasingly creating blocks of regional policy where they work with local governments to influence how regional investment — whether it’s innovation zones or industry building — can be put to best use.

Turning policy into opportunity

As we wrapped up the discussion, Josh reiterated the significance of these scaling businesses to our long-term economic resilience. He said that “businesses with hallmarks of growth have hallmarks of resilience” and that those who grow are likely to grow again. Spotlighting these businesses and the specific challenges that they face to ecosystem builders and VCs across the country and sectors is how we can better connect policy to opportunities.

The mid-market, small business population is an overlooked one in the UK but is a significant economic driver. Amplifying the voices of our people and growing businesses — particularly in the North — and working collaboratively to find new ways to influence regional policy is how we’ll unlock real, meaningful growth.

Talk to us by emailing hello@brabners.com or calling 0333 004 4488.