The UK’s failure to retain and scale science and know-how companies has now reached a ‘crisis point’, warns a new report from the House of Lords science and technology committee.
The report says that the UK has seen ‘a procession of promising science and technology companies moving overseas’, together with quantum computing innovator Oxford Ionics in June, which was purchased for $1 billion (£770 million) by a US firm, and transplantation tech firm OrganOx, an Oxford spin-out bought to a Japanese concern for $1.5 billion in August. It provides that with out ‘urgent and radical reform’, it could quickly be too late to repair long-standing failures to scale, retain the financial advantages of analysis and improvement, and seize alternatives for technological and financial development.
Among its suggestions are reforms to counter-productive visa policies for global talent to encourage gifted scientists and entrepreneurs to maneuver to the UK. It additionally urges the federal government to press on with implementation of the Mansion House reforms – an initiative to unlock pension capital for high-growth companies and enhance funding returns for savers.
A key advice is for the institution of a National Council for Science, Technology and Growth to assist drive via reforms supporting science and know-how development and the scale-up of UK companies. The report, which was suggested by quite a lot of knowledgeable witnesses, together with the Royal Society of Chemistry and UK Research and Innovation, additionally means that public funding our bodies, such as Innovate UK, the British Business Bank and the National Wealth Fund, ought to work extra carefully collectively, and even be consolidated right into a single physique to have the ability to compete with overseas sovereign wealth funds.
The report additionally recommends reforms to public procurement, together with mandating a share of presidency departments’ budgets that should be spent with progressive UK-based SMEs. And it means that profession buildings, pay and incentives should change to permit simpler motion between academia, enterprise and authorities, to allow every sector to have entry to the abilities and networks of others.
Finally, it says the UK mustn’t take its analysis base in universities ‘for granted’ and that this was now ‘under threat’ due to the current higher education funding crisis. It says the UK authorities should resolve this crisis ‘before it’s too late’, fairly than proposing ‘counter-productive’ actions like a levy on worldwide college students.
‘The UK has experienced sluggish productivity growth and near-flat real wages since the global financial crisis,’ says Robert Mair, chair of the committee. ‘Its inability to retain more of the economic benefits of its science and technology R&D endeavour is a fatal flaw in any growth strategy.’
‘We have witnessed a procession of promising science and technology companies choosing to scale overseas rather than in the UK. Even during our inquiry, several significant companies including Oxford Ionics, Deliveroo and Wise have relocated or expanded abroad, and even life sciences stalwarts like AstraZeneca are eyeing the exit.’
‘The UK economy is simply not working, and the consequences are clear for all to see,’ Mair added. ‘If the UK is to arrest its decline, leadership and coordinated action is needed to rescue and strengthen its science and technology sector.’
In the industrial strategy published last year, the UK authorities laid out overarching targets for the UK to turn out to be the third-best place on the earth to scale up a know-how enterprise, and to realize the primary $1-trillion tech firm within the UK by 2035. The report acknowledges that whereas these are ‘worthy ambitions’ the UK is at present ‘sliding in the opposite direction’.