Your weekly summary of entrepreneurship news, comment, and features. Sent by the Centre for Entrepreneurs (home of StartUp Britain). Sign up here. Read the original newsletter here.
CFE Founders Club
The Centre for Entrepreneurs celebrated its third birthday this week by launching the CFE Founders Club – a Fellowship scheme for entrepreneurs who wish to support the Centre’s research and campaigns. Learn more
News
- The UK Prosperity Index
Cities are failing to turn their economic growth into better lives for people, according to the Legatum Institute’s UK Prosperity Index – the first ever local authority-level index to measure wealth and well-being in the UK.Read the report. View the interactive prosperity map. The 13 best places to do business in the UK (Business Insider) - Theresa May mulling plan to dramatically slash corporation tax (City AM)
The PM is reportedly considering slashing the 20% corporation tax to 10% if the UK can’t secure passporting rights for financial services or a free trade deal. - New report calls for shake-up of UK tax system to help startups scale up(Startups.co.uk)
The Prelude Group suggest increasing awareness of tax relief schemes and introducing greater flexibility to encourage investment and hiring.Read the report - Appointment of ‘late payments’ Tsar is delayed – but expected in 2017(Mail Online)
The government has launched a consultation on long-awaited plans for a small business commissioner to tackle late payments. The role was announced in July 2016 but no appointment has been made, despite one being expected this summer. March 2015 plans to force big firms to publish their payment practices twice a year from April 2016 have also yet to come into force, despite a revised October target. - easyJet signs multi-million pound deal to get tech startups off the ground(Elite Business)
easyJet has partnered with Founders Factory to invest in five early-stage travel startups and co-create two companies from scratch every year for the next five years. - The UK venture capital scene is bucking a global trend (Real Business)
The Dow Jones VentureSource’s July 2016 findings show the UK attracted €870.1m across 115 deals in Q3, maintaining its title of favoured destination and increasing the level of investment despite a global decrease. - Enterprising startups look beyond London for success (Guardian)
Rail data from TheTrainLine suggest dynamic entrepreneurial centres are emerging outside the capital and luring a new generation of businesses.
Opinion
- The self-employed: rich, poor or something more?
Ben Dellot (associate director, The RSA) cuts through this week’s headline-grabbing findings from the Resolution Foundation and Social Market Foundation that suggest self-employed earnings are in free-fall. - Tech must offer hope to all, not a privileged few (Patricia McDonald, chief strategy officer, Isobar)
- Philip Green’s antics must not make us lose faith in capitalism (Allister Heath, The Telegraph)
- Gary Lineker and the sports stars turned startup investors (David Prosser, Forbes)
- We need entrepreneurs who think outside the box to win the good fight against bureaucracy (Jan Cavelle, Real Business)