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Rachel Reeves has appointed Alex Depledge, a champion of feminine start-ups, because the UK Treasury’s first entrepreneurship adviser, because the chancellor tries to enhance her authorities’s relationship with high-growth firms.
Depledge, who has arrange various companies together with the architectural tech firm Resi, will work two days per week on the Treasury, serving to to develop insurance policies to spice up start-ups forward of the Autumn Funds.
Reeves’ allies admit that whereas the Treasury has well-established contacts with large firms, the Metropolis of London and commerce our bodies, it wants to enhance its hyperlinks with the nation’s smaller however fast-growing companies.
Depledge has additionally spoken about the necessity to discover new sources of funding to assist firms scale up, telling the Monetary Instances final yr that this was significantly an issue for feminine entrepreneurs.
“Funding is the one factor that issues,” Depledge stated. “Ladies don’t wrestle to begin a enterprise, they wrestle to develop. We aren’t defending the one a part of the UK financial system that has inexperienced shoots.”
An absence of entry to finance is without doubt one of the key points being thought of by Reeves forward of her Mansion Home speech within the Metropolis of London subsequent month and in her Funds later within the yr.
The Treasury stated Depledge would have a look at “the important thing obstacles confronted by companies searching for to begin up or scale up within the UK”.
Depledge advised the FT final yr that ladies typically run companies in sectors that don’t naturally appeal to large funding from non-public fairness and enterprise capital.
She launched Reeves forward of her speech to Labour’s get together convention final September, saying the chancellor was a “wrecking ball” to the glass ceiling after turning into the primary lady to carry the function.
Reeves stated on Wednesday: “We have now a protracted record of profitable start-ups, scale-ups and small companies throughout the UK — with the best density of scale-ups among the many seven main industrial nations within the G7.
“Having Alex on the workforce will carry invaluable experience.” Reeves’ allies stated Depledge can be a degree of contact within the Treasury for entrepreneurs.
The Bradford-born entrepreneur stated she can be taking over a task that represented “a groundbreaking transfer that places high-growth companies on the coronary heart of financial pondering”.