Member Article

Entrepreneurs' Forum presses region's scaleup case to the Treasury

North East business organisation the Entrepreneurs’ Forum has pressed the case for the region’s high growth businesses to the Treasury after a meeting with Elizabeth Truss MP, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

The meeting, which was organised by the ScaleUp Institute, saw the organisation’s Chairman, Nigel Mills granted an audience with Truss to raise some of the concerns of the region’s scaleups at a government level and highlight some of the barriers they feel are limiting their growth.

Issues including the skills gap, the importance of EIS and SEIS investment schemes, and support surrounding exports were all broached by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, which represents over 300 high-growth businesses in the North East.

Following the meeting, Mills thanked Truss for her time and credited the government’s current approach to fostering scaleups in the region and the UK as a whole.

He commented: “The potential economic benefits of supporting scale-ups are clear, they are already responsible for all net job growth in the UK, so the fact that the Government is taking the issues that stop them growing seriously is a step in the right direction.

“Scale-ups in the North East, like in the rest of the UK, need to raise money to fund their growth, which is why the continuation and improvement of the EIS and SEIS investment schemes is so important to creating and sustaining economic progress.”

Irene Graham added: “We were very pleased to facilitate this meeting. Scale-up businesses are a vital part of the UKs economic growth and productivity picture and it is very good that in meetings such as this, the Chief Secretary is listening directly to our fastest growing businesses on what is working and what more can be done. We look forward to continuing the dialogue.”

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