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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, thanks for

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Speaker 1: being with me here at Founders Forum at Soho Farmhouse

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Speaker 1: for this episode of the Bloomberg UK Politics podcast. We're

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Speaker 1: in a room full of founders. What's your elevator pitch

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Speaker 1: for UKPLC?

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Speaker 2: Well, my elevator pitch is that the UK has been,

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Speaker 2: and remains and will be even more so, the best

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Speaker 2: place in Europe and one of the very blessed places

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Speaker 2: in the world for tech. We have an unashamedly pro

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Speaker 2: tech government and we are determined to make sure that

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Speaker 2: we preserve our place at the front of the pack,

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Speaker 2: to be a place where people want to come and

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Speaker 2: invest and innovate and reap all the benefits that tech

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Speaker 2: brings to our country and to the rest of the world.

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Speaker 2: This is the place to be.

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Speaker 1: And we do have major success stories like ARM, but

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Speaker 1: some of them are choosing to list like ARM in

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Speaker 1: New York. So it taught me through the conversations that

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Speaker 1: are happening in government, how do you think about growing businesses,

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Speaker 1: keeping businesses and growing the economy.

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Speaker 2: Well, I actually go back to when I first started

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Speaker 2: in government, not as a member of Parliament, but when

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Speaker 2: I was an advisor to then David Cameron who was

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Speaker 2: the Prime Minister, and I was his deputy chief of Staff,

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Speaker 2: and we had a real push from twenty ten onwards

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Speaker 2: to really position the UK as a global tech hub.

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Speaker 2: George Osborne's Chancellor was heavily engaged people like Rowan Silver,

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Speaker 2: Steve Hilton and others. We really wanted to send a

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Speaker 2: signal that the UK was open for business, This was

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Speaker 2: a place to invest in the United Kingdom and we

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Speaker 2: reaped the benefits of that, and indeed I saw the

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Speaker 2: benefits when I was Digital Secretary, and we worked to

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Speaker 2: make sure that the UK was an incredibly successful place

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Speaker 2: for tech, and all the stats still bear that out.

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Speaker 2: We have more unicorns I think than France, Germany and

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Speaker 2: Sweden combined. We're one of only three trillion dollar tech economies,

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Speaker 2: alongside China and the US. But what has happened during

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Speaker 2: that period of time is that others have seen our

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Speaker 2: success and they copied what we've done and are starting

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Speaker 2: to snap at our heels. And I think, what we

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Speaker 2: have to do now, and what I know that the

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister and the Chancellor are committed to doing is

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Speaker 2: making sure that we take another big step forward and

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Speaker 2: maintain ourselves ahead of the pack. And frankly, it's just

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Speaker 2: like any business. You go through a period of innovation

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Speaker 2: and investment. You reap those rewards, but you've got to

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Speaker 2: be looking all around to see that you're because your

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Speaker 2: competitors are going to be doing the same thing. We've

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Speaker 2: got to take that next step forward. And the reason

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Speaker 2: why I have confidence in our ability to do this is,

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Speaker 2: first of all, we have in the Prime Minister somebody

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Speaker 2: who's the real deal. He genuinely, I think he has

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Speaker 2: been described as a tech bro. I think it was

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Speaker 2: meant as an insult, but I actually take it as

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Speaker 2: a compliment. Somebody who gets how tech works, who gets

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Speaker 2: what's required, who has himself been an investor. We've got

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Speaker 2: some in the Chancellor and indeed in me as Deputy

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister, who've been heavily involved in the tech sectors

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Speaker 2: through our ministerial portfolios. This is my third time at

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Speaker 2: Founders Forum, and I've met countless tech entrepreneurs over the years.

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Speaker 2: I get it, the Prime Minister gets it, the Chancellor

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Speaker 2: gets it that we need to do more to make

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Speaker 2: sure that we stay ahead of the pack. And I

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Speaker 2: hope that people are seeing, for example, in ration what

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Speaker 2: we're doing in relation to AI and other areas. We're

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Speaker 2: starting to demonstrate that in action.

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Speaker 1: It's part of the problem that the regulators seem to

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Speaker 1: be more on the side of the consumer than the

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Speaker 1: tech bros.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, we have independent regulators in this country, and

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Speaker 2: it wouldn't be appropriate for me as a minister to

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Speaker 2: start giving a running commentary on decisions that are made

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Speaker 2: by our independent regulators. But I would just observe a

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Speaker 2: couple of things. So one is that I do think

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Speaker 2: it's important in making the UK and attractive destination that

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Speaker 2: we have clearly independent regular and rule of law, and

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Speaker 2: I wouldn't want to do anything to undermine that. At

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Speaker 2: the same time, I think ministers have a role in

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Speaker 2: setting this strategic direction for regulator and I think it's

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Speaker 2: important that we take that duty seriously and I'm certainly

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Speaker 2: listening to those concerns, as is the Chancellor and others,

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Speaker 2: and I think that's the appropriate way to proceed. But

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Speaker 2: I still think that the UK is an incredibly attractive

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Speaker 2: destination to make those investments, and I see for ext time.

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Speaker 2: I'll just give you an example. I was at the

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Speaker 2: London Stock Exchange on Monday and we had an event

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Speaker 2: for Indo Pacific investors and we had a huge number

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Speaker 2: of companies. I think it was about six hundred who

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Speaker 2: came here. I met with many of them and actually

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Speaker 2: when they come to the ukn they actually see what

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Speaker 2: the environment is like, they're massively attracted to it. So

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Speaker 2: we need to do the work to convince people that

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Speaker 2: this is an attractive place to invest, and it still is.

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Speaker 2: Actually if you look at the numbers, our investment massively

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Speaker 2: exceeds places like a France, German and elsewhere.

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Speaker 1: But actually France has overtaken the UK as Europe's top

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Speaker 1: destination for FDI. Yander Plessi told Bloomberg that part of

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Speaker 1: the problem is executive pay, that we have a cultural

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Speaker 1: issue with high executive pay.

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Speaker 2: Do we No, I wouldn't accept that characterization. Of course,

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Speaker 2: there are different cultural attitudes in different countries, and you

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Speaker 2: can see slightly different attitudes in the US and elsewhere.

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Speaker 2: But I think what we have sought to is, first

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Speaker 2: of all, we maintain a very low tax environment. Still

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Speaker 2: we still have the lowest corporation tax in the Heights,

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Speaker 2: but we still have the lowest corporation tax in the

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Speaker 2: G seven and alongside that we have very very strong

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Speaker 2: investment incentives. So for example, when Richie Sunaq was Chancellor

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Speaker 2: of the Exchequer and Jeremy Hunter has carried this for

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Speaker 2: we've had full expenses deductibility. That is an incredibly generous

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Speaker 2: investment incentive.

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Speaker 1: Now, but it's only three years, would you consider making

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Speaker 1: it permanent?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I'm going to say the old chestnut, which

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Speaker 2: is true, which is that spending decisions and tax decisions

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Speaker 2: are matter for the Chancellor. But what I would also

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Speaker 2: say is the reason why I'm here and I'm spending

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Speaker 2: a lot of time talking to tech entrepreneurs, the reason

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Speaker 2: why the Prime Minister is doing the same thing. He

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Speaker 2: hosted an event at Downing Street, in fact, hosted three

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Speaker 2: or four events at Downing Street, but a major dinner

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Speaker 2: on Monday Night which I was also at, is we

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Speaker 2: want to hear from from tech entrepreneurs. We want to

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Speaker 2: hear from the founders that you have at events like this.

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Speaker 2: Because we're clear about the direction we want to take

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Speaker 2: the United Kingdom in we need to have that further

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Speaker 2: step forward to make sure that we continue to be

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Speaker 2: ahead of the pack, and we're very much open to

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Speaker 2: hearing what we can do to make sure we stay

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Speaker 2: in that position ahead of the pack, and that goes

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Speaker 2: across the entire pana play of things that we can do,

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Speaker 2: and I know that the chance it is very much

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Speaker 2: listening to representations about how we can continue to make

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Speaker 2: the UK an incredibly attractive place to invest.

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Speaker 1: All right, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden. Great to have

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Speaker 1: you on the Bloomberg UK Politics podcast and at Soho

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Speaker 1: Farmhouse for Founders Forum.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, pleasure