Member Article

4D-DC’s Manifesto for Innovation in the United Kingdom

Politicians want our votes – but do they know their tweets from their pokes?

10 March 2015 - As the General Election looms closer we’re being drip fed manifesto promises and headline grabbing sound bites. Lots of vague promises to do better if elected but very little on sensible, tangible and affordable policies to boost ‘Digital Britain’ – that was so 2009. Jack Bedell-Pearce, Managing Director of 4D, proposes four policies that make good business sense. They won’t cost much, they’re simple enough to put in a manifesto and they will boost UK based (tax paying) innovative small to medium sized businesses.

According to a 2014 ComRes poll[1], the majority of people in the UK have a positive view of innovation. When asked which benefits from innovation were most important to them, the top four they listed were:

• Improving quality of life (56%)
• Job creation (48%)
• Making processes more efficient (47%)
• Saving money (30%)

It makes for interesting reading given that neither the current government nor the opposition have a clearly defined policy towards innovation. As a business that works across a variety of sectors, with large enterprises and SMEs alike we’ve come up with four policies which will improve quality of life, create jobs, make it easier for people to do stuff and yes, save money.

This is 4D’s Manifesto for Innovation:

Boost jobs in innovative small companies. Providing apprenticeships is not just a matter of recruiting young people and leaving them to learn on the job. For apprenticeships to have a real impact on the UK economy, the apprentices need to be properly trained both within the workplace and in many cases supported with outside specialist courses[2]. Many start-up businesses are an ideal training ground for apprentices but in the early years of a business, losses will be incurred. Although external training costs are an allowable expense, most SMEs in the start-up phase will not pay Corporation Tax in the early years when cash flow is critical.

The policy: Make the cost of training for recognised technical qualifications allowable against employers’ National Insurance contributions for companies that have yet to pay Corporation Tax.

Abolish fibre tax. Despite the government saying it wants high speed internet throughout the UK, there is a little known 21st Century ‘window tax’ on the very thing that is the backbone of high speed internet, the fibre tax. The only companies that benefit from the fibre tax are BT and Virgin (the two biggest network providers in the UK) as it acts as an effective barrier to entry for smaller providers. The policy: Abolish the tax and this will encourage local, independent ISPs to build new networks to towns and villages around the UK at affordable prices.

Provide a digital awareness training course for MPs. A significant number of politicians don’t understand technology – even some who are directly involved in the passing of bills on it. One MP who contributed to the Digital Economy Bill referred to IP Addresses as “Intellectual Property” addresses and another MP recently said that many of them “tend to say rather silly things based on not knowing or caring about technological facts.”

The Office for National Statistics recently said that 87% of UK adults used the internet in 2014[3], with the figure rising to 99% for 16 to 24 year-olds. With the internet now such a big part of our lives, MPs need to make the effort to understand the social and commercial impact the digital economy has on people – not just how many Twitter followers they have. The policy: Create a digital awareness training course for politicians and publish the list of attendees to show who is really taking an active interest in the digital economy.

Offer interest free loans on connectivity upgrades. In 2004, the government introduced an interest free loan scheme through the Carbon Trust and provided £160m of finance to SMEs in the UK[4] to invest in carbon reducing technologies. It had the win-win effect of reducing power consumption, reducing bills and generating investment in UK companies. But in 2011, the scheme was quietly dropped. The policy: We propose a similar interest free scheme to allow qualifying SMEs to upgrade from ADSL to fibre leased lines.

SMEs would be given a 3 year interest free loan of up to £5k to contribute towards the installation of fibre lease lines to their premises and first year running costs. With a truly high speed internet connection, they can utilise cloud products (which require high bandwidth) far more effectively and connect to customers and suppliers literally at the speed of light. [See page 44 of techUK manifesto for more stats[5]).

Join the conversation today using Twitter Hashtag #4DManifesto or visit 4d-dc.com/manifesto

About 4D As one of the fastest growing tech companies in the UK, 4D specialises in providing customers with highly efficient, flexible, resilient and cost effective connectivity, cloud and colocation solutions.

[1] http://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/innovation_population_summary.pdf

[2] http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/apprenticeships-what-the-government-isnt-telling-you/12650

[3] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/rdit2/internet-access-quarterly-update/q1-2014/stb-ia-q1-2014.html

[4] http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/home/topics/indies-rage-as-carbon-trust-drops-free-loans/221270.article?redirCanon=1

[5] http://www.techuk.org/insights/reports/item/2099-techuk-manifesto

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by 4D-DC .