Last Friday, Andy Burnham gave a speech to an innovation conference. I linked to the government press release which publishes the text of the speech. In my diigo notes, I say, “It’s a really good speech, not in my mind, one that Starmer or Reeves would have made: touching Devolution of industrial planning, innovation in all industries, inclusive of Universities and life science research, and ambitious.” Backed by £80bn of investment. What brought me to the speech though is his promise to outlaw non-compete clauses in contracts.
My notes and highlights
Behind all of it, the government is investing over 80 billion in research and innovation in this spending review.
- This is significant, what a change from shit-canning the supercomputer programme.
First, we will devolve local innovation partnerships funds to established mayors from 2028.
Second, we will build on our existing industrial strategy at a national level by identifying the clusters around the UK with the potential to become truly world leading and with UKRI, commit one billion pounds over the next four years to back these clusters and these places.
- £1bn over four years for multiple sites doesn’t sound so much
And thirdly, picking up on what Gordon was saying, I want to see more collaboration between clusters in a way Britain has never managed before.
Cambridge, home of incredible health research. When you connect that health research to a city region nearer 3 million people with a digital care record, you immediately see how the potential for clinical trials is totally transformed.
- Health research is a better bet than AI IMO
And on the back of that we’ve seen Liverpool and Oxford sign a new partnership. Imperial and Warwick, doing the same.
- Where’s Horizon Europe?
It can’t be about supercharging a part of the economy and everybody else feeling shut out. We need to give paths to everybody into the emerging innovation economy.
What we also recognise is of the 100 fastest growing companies in the UK last year, more than half were founded by people who came to Britain.
… believe some businesses have gone too far in their use of restrictive practices such as non-compete clauses. A few I know shared by many in this room and across the sector. Non-compete clauses stop workers from joining a rival organisation or indeed setting up one of their own after they have left their role and I think that’s a drag on innovation and prevents the best really being energised and bringing that dynamism to the economy. …
So, I can confirm today we will legislate to make sure that non-compete clauses will no longer be a barrier to hiring for our most promising startups and scaling firms.
How many innovations, how many inventions can you think of that began here and then were scaled up somewhere else around the world?
This is part of our national story, which we should not be proud, and we should commit to change today.
I think we are a global leader in life sciences, and we should be proud of that status.
Let’s really focus on that and bring innovation to all parts of the UK as well. We can grow our companies into global giants. We can extend the chain of human achievement. We can be the world’s innovation nation.
Not bad in my opinion
The FT signpost the speech, and then have some quotes from opponents of the measures on non-compete. (Both behind paywalls, I think). It is also reported at ESA (the employment law solicitors) whom I quote because they are high on the google page rank and not behind a paywall.
Image Credit: OGL 3,0