91探花

Ten years ago, when I started Popsa, the UK was one of the best places in the world to build a tech company. Since then, I鈥檝e watched peers increasingly move their businesses to, or start new ones in, Dubai and the United States. 听

As the country finds itself on the cusp of new leadership, now鈥檚 the time to reflect on the successes and failures of past Governments and how the next Prime Minister can best support UK startups for a thriving ecosystem. 听
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How has the UK tech scene evolved over the past few years? 听

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The environment that made Britain attractive has been gradually eroded as successive chancellors have spent recent budgets making life harder for people who take risks. The tax on selling the business you鈥檝e spent years building has nearly doubled, and small companies have been burdened with more employment rules at the exact moment many jobs might be automated. 听

On top of that, R&D tax relief for smaller companies was cut sharply, Corporation Tax went up, Employer鈥檚 National Insurance rose, and the London IPO market has thinned to the point where it鈥檚 almost embarrassing to list here.听

That being said, I still think London is the best place to start a company in Europe. There are plenty of opportunities and talent to build breakthrough innovation, especially in fintech, AI, and cybersecurity. 听
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What鈥檚 your take on the UK government鈥檚 current support for startups? 听

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This Government, advised by Rachel Reeves, has done some genuinely useful things, such as doubling the Enterprise Investment Scheme investment limits and widening the Enterprise Management Incentive share options scheme.听

What concerns me is where the conversation is heading now. Talk of a wealth tax, a 50% top rate, or aligning Capital Gains Tax with Income Tax would tell the next generation of founders to build somewhere else. And plenty already are.听
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With Andy Burnham poised to be the next Prime Minister, what should UK founders pay attention to??听

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The question that matters more for the industry is who he appoints to the Treasury. Andy Burnham鈥檚 Manchesterism is sold as business-friendly, and the Chancellor he chooses will show whether that holds. 听

There is a Labour precedent for getting it right: Gordon Brown鈥檚 taper relief regime brought the effective Capital Gains Tax rate on long-held business assets down to 10%. A Labour chancellor once cut the tax on building something to ten pence in the pound. 听

The party can back wealth creation as readily as redistribution when it decides to, and a Chancellor who resets that narrative would earn Burnham real room with the markets and with the founders he needs to keep here.听
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What priorities should be on the upcoming tech policy agenda?听

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The UK spends billions encouraging innovation, but provides relatively few direct incentives for startups to create high-skilled jobs. 听

The Government should consider rewarding outcomes 鈥� not just investment 鈥� through pay-roll tax credits and social security reductions,. Developing grants tied to the creation of engineering, AI, and cybersecurity roles would contribute to growing the job market.听

It鈥檚 also important to re-establish trust to welcome entrepreneurs 鈥� from the UK and elsewhere. If we want to remain the best place in Europe to build a startup, policymakers should focus less on headline announcements and more on founder-friendly measures, such as startup visas, stock option reform, regulatory sandboxes, and faster access to growth capital. That鈥檚 how we will keep building a diverse and thriving ecosystem that attracts the best talent to drive innovation. 听

Finally, the ecosystem鈥檚 growth challenge is not a lack of job creation incentives or regulations alone. It also comes down to the speed at which decisions get made. From planning delays to fragmented data, responsive tech programmes that are aligned with startups鈥� fast-paced timelines are key for effective support. 听

The UK has strong ground to become a leading voice on the world鈥檚 tech stage. It just needs to steer efforts in the right direction to best support founders.听
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How can the UK best approach the AI revolution? 听

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The UK has made some bold bets, such as sovereign compute and a National Data Library, but these are ten-year projects that may not survive the constant turnover of Prime Ministers. 听

The next Chancellor would need to decide whether to treat AI as a national mission that outlasts any one government, and whether they back the thousands of companies applying AI 鈥� and not just a handful of frontier labs.听

At Popsa, we鈥檒l be targeting $100M in revenue next year. We can get there, but a government that genuinely backs its founders would help us create more jobs faster and help the whole country prosper in an AI age.