Bosses at UK’s fastest-growing firms say government must act in Budget to boost job creation

Britain’s fastest-growing companies, which employ more than 5 million people and accounted for more than 30% of all jobs created from 2020-2024, have said the Chancellor must act in the Autumn Budget to remove barriers to growth.

If Healey takes action, three in four would hire at least 10% more people in the next year than they already plan to.

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Enterprise Britain, a movement of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors, has said the government must use the Autumn Budget to back the UK’s fastest-growing companies and boost job creation. 

It comes as the group’s latest report – Jobs at Scale – finds that a small number of ‘super scalers’ have an outsized impact on job creation. These ~10,000* companies employ more than 5 million** people across the UK. They were responsible for more than 30% of all new jobs from 2020 to 2024, despite making up less than 1% of all companies***.

Enterprise Britain surveyed more than 400 leaders from these ‘super scalers’ and identified five ‘brakes’ that are holding them back from growing and hiring even faster. 

• Brake 1: Slow movement of talent – 75% said the slow movement of talent is holding back economic growth. The vast majority (87%) said non-competes are a hurdle when hiring; 79% said the same about long notice periods.
• Brake 2: Skills shortages – They said that an inability to find skilled talent was their second biggest barrier to hiring.
• Brake 3: Rising cost of hiring – They said payroll taxes, such as the increase in employer National Insurance (NI) contributions, were the top barrier to hiring. 87% said they are likely to hire more people if the NI increase is reversed.
• Brake 4: Lack of domestic investment – 81% said a lack of domestic investment is holding back economic growth. 
• Brake 5: Rigid regulation and bureaucracy – They said government regulations are one of the top three challenges facing their sector, and cutting unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy should be one of the top five priorities in the Budget.

Three in four of these fast-growing companies said they would hire at least 10% more employees in the next year if these brakes are released. 

To that end, Enterprise Britain outlined a series of actions the government should take in the Autumn Budget. They include: 

• Speeding up hiring by banning non-competes and giving employees the power to reduce their notice period to one month.
• Creating a scale-up tier for the Employee Management Incentives (EMI) scheme to keep more of Britain’s top talent at home, and give them a stake in their employers’ success.
• Reversing the increase in employer National Insurance contributions, which has made hiring more expensive.
• Mobilising more capital for British scale-ups through Repeat Entrepreneur Relief**** and incentives for pension funds to invest in venture.
• Urgently implementing the Scale-up Concierge service to help fast-growth companies overcome bureaucratic hurdles.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Co-Chair of Enterprise Britain, said: 

“The government's energy should go to two things. First, the people whose jobs are changing: the skills to adapt, the freedom to move, and a stake in the success of what comes next. Second, the companies creating new jobs. This report shows who they are: around 10,000 businesses we call ‘super scalers’.”

Brent Hoberman, Co-Chair of Enterprise Britain, said: 

“The Autumn Budget provides Andy Burnham’s government with a golden opportunity to back Britain’s super scalers, accelerate job creation, and spread prosperity more widely. It is critical that we don’t miss this moment.”

The full report is available at www.enterprise-britain.com/jobsatscale 

Notes to Editors

‍About Enterprise Britain

Enterprise Britain is a movement of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors on a mission to build a better future for the UK. We have come together to resist defeatism, reawaken ambition, help great businesses to grow, and ensure that future prosperity is shared more widely. 

Our media team can be reached at: press@enterprise-britain.com

‘Super scalers’ data

Data on super scalers comes from The Data City, which collects data on all UK companies from a range of trusted sources including Companies House, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and Creditsafe. The Data City applied the OECD definition of scale-ups to the data to identify companies with at least 10 employees that have grown by an annualised 20% per year for the last three years in employment, turnover, or both. To define super scalers, it narrowed this group further to companies with 50 or more employees and turnover of at least £5 million.

Polling data

All figures are based on a survey conducted by Merlin Strategy of 423 leaders of some of the UK’s fastest-growing businesses. The sample was drawn from the list of ‘super scalers’ identified by The Data City, as outlined above. The fieldwork was carried out from 30 July to 8 August 2026.

Footnotes

* The exact number of ‘super scalers’ is 10,021.

** The exact number of people employed by super scalers is 5,074,983.

*** This is based on companies still in business today.

**** A reduction in capital gains tax if money from an exit is reinvested in a qualifying company or fund.