How the government can give our start-up businesses a hand up

Government cash might be nice, but there are better things it could do for start-up businesses, says Matthew Lynn

Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak should put away his new toy and think again
(Image credit: © Shutterstock)

For three decades, the UK has stuck to the view that the government shouldn’t try to invest directly in companies. It didn’t have the expertise to “pick winners” and was far too easily swayed by political considerations. Over the last year, that has changed. At the height of the Covid-19 crisis the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, decided that, with venture-capital money drying up, he should step in and help companies that otherwise might go bust. The Future Fund ended up spending £1.1bn, taking stakes in more than 1,500 companies.

What government can offer

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.