A Thousand Fathers

Dear <<First Name>>,

Although every policy has a thousand fathers (and mothers), it's always heartening when ideas we've pushed are backed by politicians.

Back in 2015 we released Made in the UK with the NUS, revealing that 42 per cent of international students intended to start a business after graduation. However, in order to do this, international graduates wanted time to work in start-ups, building their ideas and networks. Instead, many of the best and brightest in the world are turfed out. That's why we made the case for reintroducing the Post-Study Work Visa, which prior to 2012 granted international students time the time they needed after graduating.

The Post-Study Work Visa was scrapped by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary. Today, Sajid Javid – the Home Office's Secretary of State and contender to be the next Prime Minister – has promised to support Jo Johnson's cross-party visa proposals, which includes the reintroduction of the Post-Study Work Visa.

Javid has also vowed to broaden the apprenticeship levy into a wider skills levy, giving employers the flexibility they need to train their workforce. Again, this is something that we called for in our recent Management Matters report – part of our ABE-sponsored Business Stay-Up campaign.

Meanwhile, fellow leadership hopeful Sam Gyimah announced some encouraging tax policies today. As part of a five-point plan to scrap the worst taxes in Britain, Gyimah has called for a couple of things we've proposed. He would replace business rates with a commercial land tax – paid by commercial landlords on the land value so that no business is worse off if it invests in its property. He also plans to make all business investments deductible immediately, by making the Annual Investment Allowance unlimited. We suggested both these things in our report on Tax Reform for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship.

No matter who becomes Prime Minister, many of the policies announced by the candidates over the coming days (both good and bad) will feed into the next Government's agenda. Today's announcements offer room for hope.

On your bike
The Resolution Foundation has released some important research. Moving Matters finds that the rate at which the British public take up a new opportunity and change residence has fallen – particularly for younger people. Among other things, the report finds the propensity of young private renters to move home and job fell by two-thirds between 1997 and 2018, largely driven by increased rental costs. This should concern us all. Individuals can't make the most of their talents if they're priced out of cities, and entrepreneurship is stymied if the pool of talent isn't deep for founders to build their companies.

Annabel Denham argues that introducing flexible season tickets would make life easier for female founders – she’s backing the Rail Delivery Group’s call for fare regulations to be updated for the 21st century

Matt Hancock wants to cut business rates, funded by raising the incoming digital services tax

New data reveals that investment into Leeds-based tech companies broke Northern investment records in 2018, totalling £108.8m

A new study finds that countries are 25 to 50 percent more likely to gain an advantage in patenting certain technologies if the number of foreign inventors from other nations that specialises in those technologies doubles

What do we really know about the UK’s national minimum wage? Not as much as people claim, according to a new analysis of the data

Amazon is working with Enterprise Nation to open 10 stores across the UK to help SMEs combine online and in-person sales

Uber has released a free dataset of historical road speeds aggregated from anonymised Uber trips

Clifford Chance’s tax expert Dan Neidle notes: “Contrary to all conventional wisdom, UK corporates pay a higher % of their profits in tax than at any point since 2000. There has been no ‘race to the bottom’ or ‘corporate handout’”

Friends of the Network

Competition

Tata Varsity Pitch Competition 2019
Prize: £15,000
Find out more
The hunt is on for the best student and graduate business ideas.

Programmes

Fintech Programme
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This fintech programme is aimed at company founders and consists of insights sessions delivered by some of the most established fintech entrepreneurs, investors and partners.

The ScaleUp Accelerator
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For companies on track to hit £1m of revenue who are looking to raise their Series A round of investment in the next 12months.

Events

A Bright Tech Future
13 June 2019
2.30pm to 5.30pm
Barbican, Silk Street, London
Free
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Join Tech Nation at the Barbican on 13 June for a look into the UK tech job market, with keynotes and panel discussions from the likes of Margot James MP, Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, Bonita Norris (World's youngest person to climb Everest and reach the North Pole), Zoopla, Makers, Developing Experts and Onfido.

Cash Flow and Cakes
13 June 2019
12.30pm to 2pm
WeWork, 2 Eastbourne Terrace, London, W2 6LG
Free
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HSBC and BMIM Cash Flow are collaborating to bring together a practical interactive workshop to help growing businesses gain insight into what really makes money in their business

IoD Liverpool | Authentic Leadership: The rise of the humans
18 July 2019
9am to 11am
Rathbone Investment Management, Liverpool
£10
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Hear how two local universities have developed organisation-wide staff initiatives to transform leadership behaviours from the top.

A Thousand Fathers Friday, 7 June 2019

A Thousand Fathers
Friday, 7 June 2019