Why Rachel Reeves should look to bring back the Yorkshire Forward agency: Jenson Brook

In their manifesto, Labour committed to planning to set ten-year budgets for R&D to focus on longer-term funding, the establishment of a new Regulatory Innovation Office and an industrial strategy that supports the development of the AI sector.

Labour also committed to supporting diverse business models which bring innovation and new products to the market.

This includes the co-operative sector, which Labour aims to double the size of and work alongside the sector to address the barriers they face, such as accessing finance.

When announcements are made with more detail on the establishing of the new Regulatory Innovation Office, who knows?

But, given the importance of innovation and support, along with control, of the AI sector to the Labour government, it is unlikely to be too long.

The ten-year R&D budgets and comments on the stabilisation of the R&D tax credits and Patent Box regimes will hopefully be mentioned in the Autumn Statement later this year.

In line with potential upcoming changes, it would be great to see an initiative such as the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, which was closed in 2012 following the public spending review in 2010, be restored.

Yorkshire Forward was created to support the development of businesses in the Yorkshire and the Humber region by encouraging public and private investment.

I think it would be a huge addition to the Yorkshire ecosystem and to provide further support for regional businesses at a time when we need it.

There is no shortage of innovation or aspiration from the UK business community and this was most evident during the Britain’s Got Startups event series that was delivered recently.

The challenge, as ever, is these companies accessing the funding needed to scale and to do so quickly.

Although it may come as no surprise, those businesses that launch in the North are disproportionately impacted when compared to those in London and the surrounding districts.

We need to change this and to level the playing field.

It will be interesting to see how Labour policies deliver the changes that will provide the support that start-up and scale-up businesses need.

After all, the SME market has been the ‘crutch’ we have consistently relied upon during hard times.

Perhaps now the tables should turn, and we should acknowledge the employment opportunities these organisations create and the potential they can bring to the economy.

Jenson Brook is Managing Director of Novus Capital