Rachel Reeves is looking for growth on a tight budget. She must focus on creating the conditions that help Britain’s young founders start, survive and scale, while also addressing the root causes driving Britain’s entrepreneur exodus, argues Sean Kohli

Rachel Reeves will be getting no shortage of advice ahead of November’s Budget. The snowballing fiscal black hole has no doubt sucked into its vacuum a more than sufficient proportion of the Treasury’s time.

But buried in all the noise lies a genuine opportunity to make tangible change: change that aligns with the Chancellor’s mission of growth and points to the future rather than the next fiscal sticking plaster. If Reeves really wants to boost Britain’s economic dynamism, she should start with the people already driving it: our young entrepreneurs.

In recent months, through the Young Entrepreneurs Forum, I’ve spoken with hundreds of this country’s most promising young founders. Their verdict, presented in our Ambition Unlimited report, is strikingly consistent: Britain is a great place to start a business – but a hard place to grow one.

Britain has all the raw ingredients: world-class universities, creative talent, and strong early-stage investment. But scaling up businesses remains a slog. Inflation has eroded the value of key tax incentives. Raising follow-on capital is far harder than it should be. Regulation lags behind innovation. Visa rules are tightening just as every major economy is competing for the same talent. And the tax burden on those who take risks has crept ever........

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