Morning, Tuesday, 16th September 2025
Online
This conference will consider next steps for UK start-up policy.
Sessions will focus on improving access to finance, supporting adoption of digital technologies, fostering job creation, and developing regulation to better serve the needs of small and high-growth businesses, with the aim of greater contributions to local economies.
It will bring together key stakeholders and policymakers to discuss priorities emerging from the Government’s forthcoming Small Business Strategy in the context of the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce Interim Report, and DBT’s consultation on Small Business Access to Finance. Delegates will look at the role of new initiatives such as the British Growth Fund, the Green Growth Guarantee Scheme, and the proposed Business Growth Service.
Further sessions will discuss practical steps for making it easier for start-ups to access capital at each stage of growth and to better understand regulations. Delegates will examine the evolving role of digital tools in business support and the case for more integrated infrastructure to support scale-up firms, as well as ways in which the UK’s financial ecosystem, including new listing platforms such as PISCES, can better serve innovative companies.
Discussion will consider how new policies can support fair and balanced growth across the UK, such as looking at how regional funding programmes like NPIF II are being used, and how public sector contracts can better support start-up innovation. Attendees will consider strategies for managing risk, and maintaining accountability in how start-ups are supported, as well as focusing on methods of working between regulators, industry, and support organisations that can best help businesses grow in a fast-changing, digital economy.
With the agenda currently in the drafting stage, overall areas for discussion include:
- Small Business Strategy implementation:
- priorities for different types of businesses - tensions between central policy and priorities of devolved governments
- strategies for aligning business support with wider economic goals, including overseas investment
- access to finance: regional imbalances in funding - gaps in provision for underrepresented founders - role of the British Business Bank and private finance in easing barriers for businesses
- capital markets and listing reform: questions about proposed changes under PISCES - incentives for UK start-ups and scale-up firms to list onshore
- regulation:
- clarity and consistency across FCA, CMA and RIO frameworks - how regulation can foster investor confidence and encouraging innovation
- reports of inconsistent requirements delaying product launches or deterring investment
- digital adoption and innovation: lessons from AI-related pilot schemes - strategies for access to defence supply chain - assessing whether early-stage firms have enough access to technical support for growth
- procurement and public sector access:
- mitigations for new processes favouring established suppliers - ways for reforms, including in defence, to enhance SME access to public contracts - use of public sector demand to drive innovation
