The role of technology in reviving the UK economy

Technology has the potential to boost our economy, fuel growth and give the new government a life-changing level of flexibility in terms of policy and reform. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), if there were a broader adoption of artificial intelligence, for example, we could see an expansion to the UK’s economic growth of up to 1.5 percentage points per year during a decade. This is at a time when the World Economic Forum puts the UK behind many developed nations in the world for tech and ICT adoption – at 31^st.

As the government prepares to place economic growth front and centre by introducing a modern industrial strategy, it needs to tackle a key issue. To achieve the current administration’s brave new level of change ambition, we must quickly find a way to increase digital uptake and skills among small business and increase investment in digital tools among the UK’s SME community.

This is something my company Enterprise Nation knows a lot about. Early-stage, micro and start-up entities make up 96 per cent of UK businesses, and there are around 6 million of them. We work with these organisations every day. There is a real hunger among them to grasp emerging technologies, but these are also busy firms that have faced a relentless mix of challenges in recent times.

Many are preoccupied with trying to achieve their potential with the resources at hand – and digital upskilling is another item on a long to-do list. While the heads of the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are preparing for action, the chancellor Rachel Reeves’s first speech pointed to some fundamental priorities: a key part of their plans will be working with the private sector to deliver investment, innovation and growth.

I have always felt that supporting our business community should not solely be the responsibility of the public purse – the private sector also has a lot to give and gain from small companies that are allowed to thrive. This is the guiding principle behind what we do. By actively involving the private sector, we have been able to develop technology solutions that can enhance business support.

We have worked with Google, Cisco, Vodafone Business and Sage to build a free-to-use tech hub that accelerates the digital adoption among SMEs and boosts the nation’s productivity, at no cost to the government either. It’s called the ‘One-Stop Shop’ – a platform created alongside the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. Analysis shows it has delivered an 11 per cent boost to digital skills of the 3,500-strong test group, rising to 17 per cent among founders from ethnic minorities and 24 per cent among female founders.

This three-year digital programme was delivered without any financial input from the businesses using it, and it has produced measurable results that could inform and shape future iterations. One of the platform’s key principles is that everything should be in one place. We pulled in more than 1,000 peer-rated resource programmes from accredited providers in order to reach a diverse audience of entrepreneurs.

Skills and confidence as well as investment play pivotal roles in how technology transforms organisations, and we understand that any attempt to enforce or nudge adoption must be delivered with robust digital guidance and support. Digitalisation underpins every single growth priority as well as the fundamental changes outlined in Labour’s plan for small business:  re-thinking business rates; increasing SME procurement; sorting out late payments.

Even the VAT threshold cliff edge – a thorny issue that is often blamed for curtailing ambition – could be easily smoothed using technology. In short, the solutions exist, the private sector is willing to invest and the transformative technology is ready to be unleashed. Let’s do business.

Emma Jones is the founder and chief executive of Enterprise Nation.