A number of recommendations have been made in a new assessment by the House of Lords, with warnings time is running out to overcome deep rooted problems in nurturing domestic innovation.
According to the Lords Science and Technology Committee, Britain has failed to retain and scale homegrown tech firms, leading to a devastating leak in the economy. Urgent reform is now needed to try and-plug the hole, with a real risk of the situation becoming irreparable.
Central to this is the idea that economic benefits from innovation sectors are not being felt domestically, with productivity and real-terms wage growth making the situation worse.
‘We have witnessed a procession of promising science and technology companies choosing to scale overseas rather than in the UK,’ said Lord Mair, Chair of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee. ‘Even during our inquiry, several significant companies including Oxford Ionics, Deliveroo and Wise have relocated or expanded abroad, and even life sciences stalwarts like AstraZeneca are eyeing the exit.
‘The UK economy is simply not working, and the consequences are clear for all to see,’ Mair continued. ‘If the UK is to arrest its decline, leadership and coordinated action is needed to rescue and strengthen its science and technology sector. While the issues facing the UK economy are grave, with decisive and speedy action from the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, our Committee believes challenges can be overcome.’
The following recommendations have been made:
- Clearer leadership from the Prime Minister and Chancellor, taking charge through a new National Council for Science, Technology and Growth.
- Reforms to counter-productive visa policies for global talent.
- Mansion House Reforms should go further and faster with incentives for pension funds to invest in UK science and technology
- Reforms to public procurement, including a mandatory targets for departments to spend with innovative UK based SMEs, mirroring measures in the US.
- Consolidation and scaling of public investment bodies including Innovate UK, the British Business Bank (BBB), and the National Wealth Fund (NWF).
- Changes to career structure, pay and incentives to enable easier movement between academia, business and government.
- Incentivise and protect sensible risk-taking to support domestic innovation in government investment and procurement, adopting a risk-on mindset
This summer, critics hit out at the UK Government for striking ‘dangerously naive‘ deals with US Big Tech. There are widespread concerns about the level of personal data on British citizens that will now be kept on US servers, and strong arguments for channeling more funds to domestically developed technologies rather than overseas entities.
Image: Sharon Pittaway / Unsplash
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