APPG for Entrepreneurship: July 2020 Digest

July has been an active month for the APPG for Entrepreneurship. While Parliament is still closed for events, we have been busy hosting webinars on topics from digital adoption to local economic growth.

It seems APPG webinars are like buses. You wait weeks for one and then you get two on the same day. We kicked off Thursday July 9th with an SME Policy Pitch to Paul Scully MP (Conservative), Minister for Small Business, where we heard from Xero co-founder Gary Turner, Dom Hallas, (Executive Director, Coalition for a Digital Economy), Irene Graham (CEO, The ScaleUp Institute) and myself, Sam Dumitriu (Research Director, The Entrepreneurs Network).

The event marked the launch of Upgrade, a new report by The Entrepreneurs Network and Xero, which looked at building on the lockdown shift to digital and increasing digital adoption by SMEs. This matters because if the UK’s 1.1m micro businesses doubled their uptake of key digital technologies, it would lead a £4,050 average productivity boost for the 4.09m workers employed by micro businesses, restoring four-fifths of lost productivity growth since the financial crisis, enabling businesses to bounce back faster post-lockdown. 

A number of themes recurred throughout the event, including the value of business networks, the need to modernise the R&D tax credit, and the potential to use young people to drive adoption. The conversation on digital adoption is moving fast, with the Telegraph reporting that “Officials are understood to be exploring ways to revive companies’ lagging digital adoption rates amid hopes Covid-19 will force bosses to embrace productivity-boosting investments”.

We followed up the lively discussion about digital adoption with a roundtable on local economic growth. Entrepreneur turned MP Gagan Mohindra (Conservative) discussed what is being done in the face of Covid 19 to support local economic growth with Mark Bretton (Chairman of Hertfordshire LEP and the LEP Network) and Tom Forth (co-founder and CTO at TheDataCity.com, Founder of imactivate, and Head of Data at ODILeeds). The discussion covered a lot of ground from devolution to data, and provided good grounding for further debates. 

Just ahead of the Summer Recess, we hosted You’re Hired! Supporting Employment in Challenging Times. It featured Shadow Minister for Employment and APPG for Entrepreneurship Chair Seema Malhotra MP (Labour) alongside Mischon De Reya’s Sharon Tan and Julia Rouse, Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Centre for Decent Work and Productivity at Manchester Metropolitan University. It was an opportunity for entrepreneurs and parliamentarians to learn more about how the schemes designed to support employment are working, and consider reforms that might be necessary in light of Covid-19. (It will be available to view online soon).

If you missed any of the events, then you’re in luck as we’ve made them available via the APPG’s YouTube channel.

From our Advisory Board
Our advisory board keeps us up-to-date with the latest initiatives to support entrepreneurship in the UK. Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones draws our attention to the Amazon Small Business Accelerator, a new “free, online educational programme for anyone who wants to start a new online business or grow an existing one” created by Enterprise Nation in partnership with Amazon. 

While Naomi Weir of the CBI keeps with the digital adoption theme and shared a new report, “Building a world class innovation and digital economy“ which sets out recommendations for an innovation and tech led recovery. She’s also shared their Coronavirus Hub, which features their latest webinar series on race and equality.

In Parliament

In the House of Commons the Rt Hon Liz Truss MP, Minister for Women and Equalities answered questions about Female Entrepreneurship and Covid-19.

She noted that according to the Government’s Rose review, if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men then £250bn of value could be added to the UK economy and that this opportunity should be seized upon for the post-coronavirus recovery.

Craig Tracey MP (Con) talked about how he has been working to deliver a set of women’s business hubs across the UK. He asked what steps the government were taking to make sure the covid recovery benefits women across the UK? Truss responded that growth hubs and mentoring schemes were to be part of the levelling-up agenda and will continue to be part of government policy.

Caroline Noakes MP (Con) pointed out that it will be harder for women to take advantage of these opportunities if they do not have access to childcare. Truss replied noting that more than 90% of nursery schools were open by 4 June and that she would be in discussions with the Secretary of State for Education to ensure that childcare is reformed to make more places available.

In a session in the Commons on UK Telecommunications, the Secretary of State for DCMS said that while the UK is going to stop using Huawei equipment to build the UK’s 5G networks, the Government is still committed to making the whole country full fibre by 2025.

In a session on the UK Tech Sector with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Trade, Alan Mak MP (Con) asked what the department was doing for the UK tech sector to help it export. Graham Stuart (Con) responded by saying that the Secretary of State had launched a new tech strategy including a digital trade network across the Asia Pacific (See this Policy Update from The Entrepreneurs Network for more info). Alan Mak then asked what the department was doing for health-tech start-ups specifically and Stuart responded to say that they have produced a directory of digital health companies which provide Covid-19 solutions and they have shared that with their international network in response to inquiries from other governments.