Alex Depledge, the Treasury’s entrepreneurship adviser, is to leave the role on Thursday, warning ministers that the government treats entrepreneurship and innovation as “an afterthought” when it directs taxpayers’ money to legacy industries.
Depledge, 45, was appointed by chancellor Rachel Reeves in June 2025. She leaves after two Budgets under two chancellors, the second of which was delivered by John Healey on Wednesday.
“Keeping the scale-up on the edge underestimates the contribution of most of our companies, and we must support and develop on the coast of England at all costs,” she said, speaking at her Surrey home. “We think of them as a sideshow.”
“Entrepreneurship cannot be seen as a good news bonus in the limits of economic policy,” he added.
Depledge previously founded property technology company Resi and Hassle.com, a marketplace for cleaners that was bought by a German rival for €32m (£27m). “When I first showed up at the Treasury, it was like organ rejection,” he said.
After Reeves left his post in July, Depledge said he wasn’t sure if he still had a job until Healey asked him to stay on at the end of August. He said he would then have to “relitigate all the arguments I have won” with Healey and Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary.
At Reeves, Depledge had a two-week meeting with the chancellor. Of Healey, he said, “I hardly ever face him.”
Depledge declined to elaborate on the measures he proposed for the Budget, but said he made changes that helped last year. That includes expanding the company’s management incentive scheme (EMI), which makes it easier for young companies to offer stock options to key staff. He suggests that there are incentives for founders this time.
Healey has eliminated capital gains tax increases. A group of businessmen have written to him asking him to protect it Business Asset Disposal Reliefpreviously known as entrepreneur relief, and to consider a tax break for founders who reinvest the proceeds in other British businesses.
The letter was organized by Shalini Khemka, founder of business network E2E, and Lord (Howard) Leigh, founder of investment bank Cavendish. Signatories include RWS chairman Andrew Brode, 55/redefined founder Lyndsey Simpson and Woodland Group chairman Kevin Stevens.
Business Matters reported on Monday that Healey was also considering it charge income tax on some family business handovers.
Healey said: “I want to be the chancellor who encourages businesses in the UK to make a profit, and entrepreneurs who finally challenge the status quo, create innovative ideas and try, some people through their bleeding minds, to withstand such pressure.
“Where is the real economy? They think it’s over here with steel, cars and hard hats, that this is the ‘main event’,” she said. “And my argument is always: no, the scale-up is the main event.”
He said scale-ups, companies growing by at least 20 per cent a year for three years, were disproportionately profitable for UK businesses. In February, Depledge drew criticism from hospitality leaders said Britain does not need more restaurants.
On artificial intelligence, he said the UK was “in danger of not having a seat at the table”, adding: “The window is 18 months.
He also asked for more pension money to be directed to growing companies. “There is £3trn of capital sitting there that cannot be used for our pensioners and cannot be used for our high-growth companies,” he said.
Depledge said his main reason for leaving was that “at my core, I’m an entrepreneur”, adding he missed “the pace and chaos of running a business”.
James Parsons, chief executive of Build Circle, a UK technology consultancy, said: “UK plc should seize this opportunity – listening to leaders like Alex Depledge is what the government should be doing, not pushing them away.”