Businesses: Start-ups

Viscount Ridley Excerpts

Monday 20th November 2017 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Viscount Ridley]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what conclusions they draw from calculations by the Centre for Entrepreneurs that 660,000 start-up companies were founded in 2016.

[Viscount Ridley (Con)]

I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, and in doing so I declare my interests as listed in the register.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Lord Henley) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are working hard to ensure that the United Kingdom is the best place in the world to start and grow a business. While there is no single source of data on the start-ups, the Government agree that the numbers engaged in enterprise is at a historic high, which shows that entrepreneurship is thriving in the United Kingdom.

[Viscount Ridley]

I thank my noble friend for that reply. Is he aware that there was a record number of start-ups in 2015 and 2016 and that, according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs, there is likely to be another record in 2017; that we are third in the world for start-ups, second only to Silicon Valley as a centre for the tech industry; and that we have three times as many unicorns—that is, $1 billion start-ups in tech—as Germany? However, while this entrepreneurial revolution is a welcome result of government policy since 2010, does my noble friend agree that what is needed now are policies to help small acorns grow into big oak trees without selling out too early? In that respect, will he perhaps look at Rishi Sunak MP’s proposal for a retail bond market for SMEs?