Britain gives entrepreneurs a voice at the treasury

Alex Depledge, founder of Resi and Hassle.com, has been asked to challenge the obstacles facing ambitious British companies as ministers search for stronger growth.

 For the first time, Britain’s Treasury has appointed an entrepreneur to advise directly on the problems faced by fast-growing companies. Alex Depledge MBE, who built several businesses from the ground up, was chosen by Chancellor Rachel Reeves to become the government’s Entrepreneurship Adviser.

The appointment was first announced in June 2025. Depledge was then reappointed on August 24, 2026, confirming that her role will continue as the government prepares its economic plans and seeks new sources of growth.

Her task is simple to describe, though harder to deliver. Over the coming months, she will advise the Chancellor on how Britain can make it easier to launch a company, attract investment and expand a successful business. She is expected to identify the practical barriers that slow entrepreneurs down, from access to finance to rules that become more difficult as firms grow.

Her advice is expected to cover the whole business environment, giving founders a chance to explain where policy works and where it creates friction.

The decision gives founders a direct channel into the Treasury, the department at the centre of tax and spending policy. It also reflects a concern shared across Westminster: Britain creates many promising start-ups, but too few become large global companies.

Depledge brings first-hand experience. She co-founded Hassle.com, an online marketplace for household cleaning that later became part of Helpling. She also founded Resi, a digital architecture and home-improvement platform. Her career has involved raising money, hiring teams and turning young businesses into established operations — precisely the pressures she will now discuss with ministers.

Reeves said start-ups, scale-ups and small companies provide the innovation needed to keep the economy growing. She pointed to Britain’s strong record among the Group of Seven leading industrial nations and said Depledge’s knowledge would bring valuable experience to the Treasury.

For Depledge, the position is intended to place high-growth businesses closer to the centre of economic policy. At the time of her appointment, she said Britain had more than 34,000 scale-ups. These companies represent only 0.6 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises, she noted, yet together generate £1.4 trillion in turnover and 55 per cent of all SME revenues.

Those figures explain the government’s interest. A relatively small group of rapidly expanding companies can create skilled jobs, lift productivity and strengthen public finances. But such firms are also vulnerable. A shortage of capital, uncertain tax rules or complex regulation can push founders to sell early, move abroad or abandon expansion plans.

The Treasury says the appointment forms part of a wider effort to support enterprise. The government has extended the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trust programme until 2035. Both are designed to encourage private investment in younger, riskier businesses through tax incentives.

Ministers have also promised to raise public research and development funding to £22.6 billion a year by 2029-30. The aim is to help innovative firms invest, recruit workers and bring new products to market. Together, these measures sit within Labour’s “Plan for Change”, which presents economic growth as the foundation for higher living standards and improved public services.

Yet the creation of an advisory post will be judged by results, not symbolism. Business leaders have often complained that consultations produce warm words while tax changes and administrative burdens continue to make planning difficult. Depledge will therefore need more than access: she must persuade a cautious Treasury to act on what founders tell her.

There is also a delicate political balance. Supporting entrepreneurs can mean accepting risk and allowing investors to earn large rewards. At the same time, Reeves faces pressure to protect public money and show that growth benefits workers beyond London and the technology sector.

Depledge’s reappointment suggests that the Chancellor values the relationship. It also raises expectations before the Autumn Budget, when entrepreneurs will look for evidence that their new voice has influenced policy.

For Britain, the question is no longer whether it can produce ideas. Its universities, financial markets and founders have already shown that it can. The harder question is whether government can create the stable conditions in which those ideas become lasting companies. Depledge’s appointment is a modest institutional change, but it places that challenge inside the Treasury itself.