UK must stop the exodus of development companies – City’s Lord Mayor: Nicholas Lyons worried businesses ‘leaving our shores’ at an alarming rate
Fast-growing companies are ‘leaving our shores’ at an alarming rate in search of better opportunities, according to the city’s Lord Mayor.
Nicholas Lyons said so-called ‘growth companies’ were being lured overseas by a more attractive business climate.
Tradition: Nicholas Lyons is the 694th Lord Mayor of the City of London
His warning came as business leaders called for more help for growth companies in the nascent industry. While the UK is good at developing technologies, he said, it is less successful at helping them as they grow.
Some firms are tackling this – HSBC has made the first loan from its £250m Growth Lending Fund, aimed at high-growth tech scale-ups.
It has given £15m to P2i, which uses nanotechnology to make waterproof coatings for electronics. But James Cundy at HSBC said the bank’s growth lending fund was only a fraction of what was needed, although he expected it to be increased.
Lyons, the 694th Lord Mayor of the City of London, said: ‘We need to do more to support the high growth companies that attract talent, grow our economy and will lead the wealth creation of the future.
‘Businesses, intellectual property and people are leaving as they are being acquired by the most sophisticated and well-capitalised property owners in other global centers such as New York.’
Kandi told the Mail: ‘It’s really important that we continue to support these scale-ups as they are a great way of attracting talent to the UK. About 50 per cent of GDP comes from scale-up.
