A leading business entrepreneur has called on politicians to stop making short-term decisions s and develop a robust long-term growth plan for the country.
Former Dragon’s Den star Piers Linney, who is also a director of the state-owned British Business Bank, said: “What we’re lacking in this country is a long term plan, a long term vision for the country and then we can stop sitting there, putting out fires and worrying about what’s happening next week or in the next election in two years – let’s have a plan for the country.
“If you’ve got a plan, you’ve got a longer-term view, you can then make decisions that may be difficult today, but actually they fit into that framework.
“Right now, it’s running around like headless chickens and that’s something that needs to change.”
Speaking to Alastair Stewart on GB News: “You’ve got the difficulties of a recession – maybe what I’m saying is even a ten-year plan – and that’s why politicians need to start thinking about the country.
“I hate to say it – we have to have a long, hard, cold, cold look at Brexit and its impact and what we do about perhaps re-joining the single market.”
He added: “I’ve set up a new business, Moblox, we’re here to help small companies, entrepreneurs…they don’t stop doing what they do because it’s raining, because of a recession, these are dreams, ambitions, aspirations.
“This is what the country needs. The growth is going to come from small businesses and our scale ups as well, the kind of mid-size growth companies. It’s not coming from large companies, they’re in decline.
“If we want to maintain our position in the global economic and political firmament, we need to focus on our small businesses and entrepreneurs and innovators. We need to invest in research and development, make sure we’re not paying too much tax…that’s where the focus needs to be.”
Mr Linney told GB News: “At the end of the day, capital will become more expensive, it will become harder to find.
“I’m raising money now myself, actually, and it’s there, that money is always there but some funds and investors are going to sit on their hands for a period of time, maybe up to a year. So, the capital’s there and needs to flow.
“The Government then has to find new ways of pooling capital because the European funds, which funded a lot of finance, growing small businesses and the regions, that money has gone.
“We’ve got to find our own money. By battening down the hatches going into a period of austerity and not having a long-term view on investing in innovation, in the really long run, is not going to do this nation any good whatsoever.”
