{"id":250646,"date":"2025-07-09T11:41:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T11:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250646\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T11:41:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T11:41:29","slug":"uks-hardtech-leaders-call-for-urgent-investment-and-reform-to-back-britains-industrial-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250646\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s HardTech leaders call for urgent investment and reform to back Britain\u2019s industrial future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK risks squandering its most valuable industrial assets unless the government acts swiftly to increase support for homegrown HardTech and DeepTech businesses, senior industry figures have warned.<\/p>\n

\nSpeaking at the inaugural Bessemer Society Summit in London, Sir Warren East, (pictured) former CEO of both Rolls-Royce and Arm, and Dame Anne Glover, CEO of Amadeus Capital Partners, urged ministers to boost investment and overhaul tax rules to help British companies scale and stay onshore.<\/p>\n

The event brought together more than 150 leading industrialists, founders, investors and policymakers for the first time, with a focus on what the UK must do to remain competitive in sectors critical to energy security, defence, and economic growth.<\/p>\n

Named after Sir Henry Bessemer, the inventor who revolutionised steel manufacturing, the Society\u2019s members have raised more than $2 billion since the pandemic. But speakers at the event warned that without urgent reforms, more of Britain\u2019s most promising technology companies could be lost to overseas buyers.<\/p>\n

Among the strongest calls for reform came from Steve Lindsey, founder of engineering firm SFL.Technology, who criticised the current tax environment for favouring foreign investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the turn of the millennium, UK pension funds invested around 50% of their assets in British companies. Today that figure is just 4%,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re using our savings to build other countries\u2019 economies instead of our own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsey called for urgent changes to tax and investment rules to prevent further erosion of Britain\u2019s industrial base. The message was echoed by other business leaders and investors who warned that the UK\u2019s stagnant equity markets and patchy capital access are threatening long-term growth.<\/p>\n

CBI chairman and Smith & Nephew chair Rupert Soames described the moment as an \u201cexistential challenge\u201d for UK public markets. Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, he backed calls for reforms to how UK pension funds allocate capital and urged the government to take a more active role in channelling investment into British industry.<\/p>\n

The event also highlighted a significant funding gap for later-stage growth capital \u2013 a key hurdle for DeepTech firms<\/a> moving from research breakthroughs to global commercial scale.<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, the summit showcased the fundraising successes of Bessemer Society members, with headline deals including:
\u2022 $740m raised by Oxford Nanopore
\u2022 $380m by Pragmatic Semiconductor
\u2022 $175m by Tokamak Energy<\/p>\n

Alex Stewart, founder of the Society and great-great grandson of Sir Henry Bessemer, said the group\u2019s members are already shaping the UK\u2019s industrial future \u2013 but need consistent backing to go further.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members are building the infrastructure of the next industrial revolution \u2013 in clean energy, advanced materials, semiconductors and AI. But too many are forced to look overseas to grow,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need the UK to invest in itself again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The summit featured panels on energy security, dual-use defence technologies, AI, and regional innovation clusters. The overwhelming theme was that HardTech \u2013 companies rooted in engineering and scientific advances \u2013 will be essential to future economic resilience and national sovereignty.<\/p>\n

But delegates warned that unless government policy catches up, more companies will go the way of Arm, the UK chip designer now headquartered in the US, or Wise and Flutter, which recently shifted primary listings from London to New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK can lead the world in HardTech \u2013 but only if we match our world-class research with world-class capital and commercial ambition,\u201d said Dame Anne Glover.<\/p>\n

With a general election on the horizon and mounting pressure to drive domestic growth, business leaders hope the Bessemer Society Summit will act as a catalyst for action \u2013 turning rhetoric into investment and making Britain a serious contender in the global tech economy once again.<\/p>\n

\t \t\t\"\" \t \tAmy Ingham \t<\/p>\n

\t\tAmy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK\u2019s largest print and online source of current business news. \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK risks squandering its most valuable industrial assets unless the government acts swiftly to increase support for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-250646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114823094980821392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}