Westminster can learn from privately-owned businesses

Planning for the future is difficult when leadership is inconsistent. A business with five different CEOs in six years doesn’t instil confidence, yet that’s the cycle in which Westminster is currently operating. Westminster can learn that consistent, future-focused leadership builds confidence and enables long-term growth, something short-term election cycles struggle to provide.

It is a misconception that government can create growth. It can only create the environment for growth to happen, and that is largely about instilling confidence. The current cycle of constant change is therefore a real concern.

When we are stuck in short-term election cycles, or increasingly a cycle of leadership change within election cycles, no matter who the prime minister is, or which party is in power, there will always be the distraction of “how do we win” over “how do we push through a long-term agenda for change?”.

Owner-managed businesses as a model

If we want examples of consistent, future-focused leadership we need to look beyond Westminster and towards the privately-owned, owner-managed business community. While national politics struggles with short-termism, enterprising owner-led businesses have spent the last decade overcoming macro adversity and building organisations that last. They achieve this by maintaining a long-term vision, acting on it every day, and remaining resilient in the face of crises.

To be fair, we also see stable political leadership in devolved, regional combined authorities, such as Greater Manchester and Liverpool, where regional leaders have had decades, not months, to build and deliver plans that build confidence. Perhaps that is why Andy Burnham is seen as an attractive candidate for Number 10.

When stable regional political leadership is combined with the resilience, drive and energy of enterprising owner-led businesses, and is aligned around a shared long-term view, true continuity emerges. The result is significant, sustained growth regardless of national political shifts.

Regional policy and decentralised decision-making

Right now, the UK risks perpetuating a crisis in confidence and an economy hampered by caution. While times feel tight this doesn’t always mean there is a shortage of capital. In fact, there is around £190bn of unallocated capital sitting on the sidelines, stuck because negative headlines make buyers hesitant to spend.

In this climate, we need to turn to the resilience of scaling, enterprising owner-led businesses. They don’t wait for the perfect political climate; they are too busy building, adapting and surviving. Having navigated global pandemics and energy crises, they possess a level of resilience and optimism often missing in corporate or political echelons. They also form the bedrock of our economy, with 44,000 scale-up businesses generating over £2 trillion in turnover, about 50% of all private-sector turnover in the UK.

These businesses hold significant economic power, yet their voice often goes unheard, especially outside the capital. The True North Network advocates for scaling owner-led businesses, providing them with a voice while celebrating great Northern firms that are bucking the trend.

If we unlock even a fraction of their ambition and marry it with regional policy that facilitates growth, the national economic picture would look very different.

The success of city regions like Manchester is not down to one individual, although consistency of leadership helps. It is built on decades of strong private-public ties, illustrated by the North West’s £1.7 billion infrastructure pipeline aimed at bolstering the region’s fastest-growing sector, construction, and generating demand and confidence to scale.

More must be done to ensure top-down policy, such as the Industrial Strategy, benefits the regions. True North was created to strengthen these ties, helping businesses understand available support and gathering intelligence about specific challenges.

By encouraging engagement and collaboration with local government and influencing how top-down investment is deployed, we can create tangible, localised support that transcends short-term political cycles.

Stability creates confidence. Owner-led businesses, their entrepreneurial leaders, and complementary regional political leadership together provide the best example of consistent, long-term, future-focused leadership we have.

If we want to create the environment for greater economic growth, highlighting the successes of our growing business population, adopting their optimistic outlook and aligning them with regional policy is how we set the course for a successful future as a nation.

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