Back in 2017, I launched the world’s first Jet Suit. What began as a homegrown and rather ambitious experiment in the world of human flight is now a company, Gravity Industries, worth nearly £60million. We’ve flown in more than 50 countries and work with special forces and medical teams worldwide, witnessing British innovation at its best, with entrepreneurs, inventors and start-ups working to keep Britain as a leader in business.
But now? Those same ideas people are packing up and packing it in. And we need to stop this happening. Entrepreneurs get bad press, but they’re the same people as you and I. They’re the shopkeepers at the end of your road, the plumbers and the inventors who start their own businesses as well as the tech start-ups.
They range from corner shops, children’s clubs and beauticians to the makers of foldable bikes, vaccine developers and, like us, Jet Suits. They are the people who create jobs in towns, bring in investment, and pay the taxes that fund our schools, NHS and transport.
And yet more of them are choosing not to take the risk, or worse, they’re leaving the country altogether.
I speak to business leaders every week who tell me they’re either closing businesses, or looking abroad. They see countries that roll out the red carpet for entrepreneurs, where taxes are lower and where it’s easier to start and grow a company.
They don’t want to continue to struggle in an economy where risk is punished, growth is taxed and red tape strangles any idea before it even begins.
What we all need to realise is that if we lose these start-ups and innovators, we lose jobs here at home. We lose investment that could be building our communities and end up importing more goods andservices from abroad – which pushes up prices and leaves us all worse off.
And it’s already happening. Our economy is stagnating, and our brightest talents are looking overseas. As a nation, we are slowly hollowing out our competitive edge – the very same edge that made us the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
Education is part of the problem. Our school curriculum hasn’t been properly updated in more than a decade. We’re still teaching kids subjects that are barely relevant, while neglecting the skills they need when they enter the world of work.
We teach Pi, but not how to read a tax return, start a business, or shape AI. And that’s why I’ve written to the Government to call for urgent change. We need entrepreneurship taught in every secondary school by 2030 and as a core subject alongside maths and English.
Young people need to know how to turn an idea into a business and how to take a risk – and yes, we also need to teach them how to fail and try again. Because those are the qualities that create jobs and drive growth. And beyond the classroom, we all need to recognise that entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of economic growth and support them accordingly.
Taxes have to be fairer, growth must be rewarded not punished and the mountain of red tape and delays that smother businesses must be cut down. If other countries can roll out the red carpet for entrepreneurs, why can’t we?
Only last week, chemicals giant Ineos moved £3billion of investment to the US from the UK which they said has become “one of the most unstable fiscal regimes in the world”.
I hear the argument “good riddance” time and again when it comes to millionaire business owners moving abroad, but we have to be realistic – we can’t moan that job opportunities are decreasing, while pushing out the very people that create them. Once entrepreneurs are gone, they’re hard to win back and when they go, they take jobs, money and opportunity with them.
The UK once led the world in invention and industry and we can lead again. But only if we act now. Every business that leaves, every leader that chooses to grow elsewhere or every entrepreneur who decides not to take the risk at all, chips away at our global competitiveness and our future.
So the choice is simple: do we want Britain to lead or to fall behind? Do we want our children to inherit an economy full of opportunities, or one where ambition has moved abroad?
Backing our entrepreneurs, our innovators, is not just about helping business, it’s about protecting jobs, lowering costs and securing Britain’s future.