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As the Chancellor’s welcome recognition in her speech highlights, the need for investment to drive growth remains critical. To get on the growth trajectory, and remain there, we now need her to get on with the pro-growth agenda, and avoid the damaging speculation we saw this year, which impacts confidence and investment plans.

The past month of conferences and summits have offered comforting words on investments but policies are needed. It has been a busy period emphasising the key requirement that the UK must remain competitive for our industry.

The success of the investment agenda depends on getting the sequencing right. At the BVCA summit, the Chancellor praised the industry’s efforts to drive investment.

UK politics is back in the spotlight with the return of parliament and the political conference season. There are a few things to look for in the autumn that may herald an improvement in business confidence.

At a time when there have been questions raised about the attractiveness of the UK’s tax arrangements for investors (domestic as well as international), even the suspicion of a ‘wealth tax’ on the horizon is counter-productive.

These are still early days in a five year Parliament. So this won’t be the last major challenge to the Prime Minister and his cabinet. But in the quieter moments, ministers are now encouraged that they can point to a swathe of frameworks and decisions which offer greater clarity for investors and businesses alike about the direction of policy travel for the next few years.

While everyone can point at London and its undoubted advantages, there is clearly scope for a fresh look at what makes different parts of the country more or less attractive to the private capital industry, and in turn generate much-sought-after growth.

There will come a point when President Trump is not mentioned in every opinion piece you read in the media. But that moment has not yet arrived, I have to warn you. Not in this contribution at least.

Sometimes in life the numbers, like the existential issues that surround them, just come at you thick and fast. And there’s been a blizzard of them in one particular direction in recent weeks.

‘Move fast and break things’ is a mantra celebrated in certain business circles, enjoying a resonance well beyond its origins as a Facebook motto. 

Politics is a tough sport. Who knew? But it can be nearly as tough for those who stand nearby, whether the issues are international or domestic.

By keeping it simple (I find that a good lesson for life), or vague (if you are being a bit more challenging) my prediction in this column a year ago that 2024 would be ‘lively’ was well borne out.

The two-part test of any comms strategy is that a core message has landed with its audience, and then had a positive effect. Whether it is selling the apocryphal tin of beans or getting people to vote for a political party, this always applies.

Some Budgets live long in the memory, others barely survive a week in the popular consciousness.

‘But there are no stairs’. So went the punchline to the pitch by the BVCA team when they proposed a new venue for our annual conference.