How Andy Burnham can help Yorkshire build the great companies of tomorrow: Tim Mills
Devolution, regional policy and local growth have dominated political headlines following Andy Burnham’s rise to Prime Minister, sparking discussion and optimism in towns and cities across the UK – especially in those places beyond commuting distance of London.
Despite the undoubted enthusiasm, many will feel they have heard all this before. Decades of top-down economic intervention have highlighted the complexity of trying to stimulate growth across the UK’s regions from Westminster. Pledges to decentralise decision-making have been made and quietly abandoned time and again as budgets become constrained or local views fall outside the centralised agenda.
Burnham’s promise of changes such as ‘Number 10 North’ - the regional office for the Prime Minister - offers a sense that this time there is substance behind the rhetoric. However, without a fundamental shift mindset it risks becoming another symbolic gesture rather than a vehicle for delivering genuine impact
One of the main tests for whether the Prime Minister’s decentralisation plans work will be the ability of our former industrial cities to begin fostering the great companies of tomorrow. Funding, access to talent and procurement are all major issues for startups outside London – all issues that must be addressed if Burnham’s plans are to succeed.
If the UK is to build the next generation of world-leading companies outside of the M25, we must support the capabilities that already exist and give them access to the capital, talent and customers they need to scale. Nowhere is this opportunity more apparent than in Yorkshire.
According to the Scale-Up Institute, Yorkshire has more scaleup businesses than any region outside of London. Its strengths lie in physical innovation, advanced manufacturing and engineering - sectors that require long-standing supply chains, specialised labour and institutional knowledge that cannot be built overnight. It is these unique features that regional policy should seek to strengthen.
Yorkshire's advantages are not theoretical; the region is already producing companies capable of competing globally. Huddersfield-based Wayland Additive, a company my venture capital fund has backed since 2019, demonstrates why geography matters. Its breakthrough electron beam 3D printing technology benefits hugely Yorkshire’s industrial pedigree. With access to local manufacturing expertise, a pool of skilled engineering talent and an established industrial supply chain which all help create an environment where advanced manufacturing could flourish.
Wayland is not just a local success story; it is evidence of a broader regional dynamic. The team is leveraging Yorkshire’s industrial connectivity to develop world-class products, showing how businesses can build on the strengths of the region’s history. If the new Prime Minister is serious about spreading wealth and prosperity across the country, he must find a way to support these ecosystems rather than attempting to impose solutions from Westminster.
Transforming Yorkshire’s early-stage companies into future leaders requires a focus on three things: access to capital, talent and customers. Although these challenges are not unique to Yorkshire, addressing them successfully could provide a blueprint for other regions across the UK.
While early-stage funding has improved, growth-stage capital remains heavily concentrated in London (and often comes from sources outside the UK). Many of the regional government-backed venture funds from the 2000s struggled to create a lasting economic impact. They were hindered by conflicting mandates between job creation and commercial returns and, though well-intentioned, failed to create the conditions for longer-term future investment.
Yorkshire needs investors that understand industrial technology and can bridge the gap between seed investments and international scale. We’re already seeing this change through new syndicates of Angel Investors in Leeds and Sheffield. These groups are adopting best practices from the UK’s most successful networks like those in Cambridge. Meanwhile, a growing number of successful tech founders across the region are now reinvesting capital, expertise and connections back into early-stage companies. This is the kind of smart capital Yorkshire needs.
Building world-class technology requires top talent. While elite Universities in cities across Leeds, Sheffield and York generate incredible STEM talent, regional startups often lose senior leaders and specialised engineers to industry elsewhere. Burnham’s policies to strengthen local economies should spark a virtuous cycle where investing in the regions will retain top talent, which will in turn accelerate local growth.
Britain’s economic future will not be secured by concentrating investment in London, nor by attempting to manufacture regional success through top-down interventionism. The new prime minister genuinely seems to understand this. If the government wants to deliver regional growth, it must remove the structural barriers facing regional startups and back geographically embedded ecosystems that already have momentum.
Sustainable economic growth will come from identifying existing regional strengths and giving them the confidence, capital and autonomy to succeed. Yorkshire already has many of the ingredients - industrial heritage, talent and a growing number of entrepreneurs ready to build. If the new government delivers on its promises, Yorkshire is well posed to play a key part in the UK’s economic future.
Tim Mills is Managing Partner at ACF Investors