Saving Britain’s future — our 10 steps to sort out UK Plc

If Britain were a company, it'd be undergoing a "business review". Executive summary as follows: "UK Plc was once hailed for its excellent, beautifully engineered product range. It owned some of the world's best brands and had a presence in many overseas territories. Service offering was sometimes eccentric, but this pillar of the business community was committed to high commercial values.

"With the retirement of its long-standing managing director, a series of new CEOs' came in. Keen to make their mark, they took the business public and pushed into new markets, particularly complex financial products'. Profits surged, UK Plc took on new people, market expectations soared. With the disposal of its old industrial divisions, credit ratings hit triple-A.

"A focus on the P&L, however, led management to neglect the balance sheet. Huge levels of debt were built up. This new leveraged' structure was justified by the promise of ceaseless future earnings from the globalised market.

"The business model was robust', spokesmen insisted. However, when its debt providers retrenched and customer confidence nosedived, the strategy of the recently rebranded Cool Britannia was exposed."

Saving Britain's Future is our response to the Government's Building Britain's Future programme. Ours presents practical ideas for reigniting Britain's spirit of enterprise and giving us a chance to become a proper economic power again. We do not advocate a return to short-termist "wealth-creation" that spawned what Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Turner calls "socially useless" commercial activity. In our view, a good business needs predictable, long-term revenues. It needs well-trained, enthusiastic people and manageable levels of debt. It should produce strong products that people buy because they need or want them, not just because they've been "sold" into submission by squadrons of outsourced telesales operatives.

How do we get there? Here's how:

1. Two-year tax holiday for first-time entrepreneurs.
To help novice entrepreneurs, we propose a package of tax breaks lasting two years. This would be a once-a-lifetime benefit to
help genuine first-time entrepreneurs through the difficult start-up period.

2. Abolish Enterprise Investment Scheme exclusions.
Under current rules, EIS covers only equity finance and forbids staff and directors.

3. Business & IP Centres for other UK cities.
The British Library's Business & IP Centre has been a huge success. Now it's time for Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds and Bristol to get their own centres.

4. Create nationwide intensive internship scheme for 15-year-olds.
Project Aspirations, chaired by Alba founder John Harris, has provided the perfect model for introducing schoolchildren to the world of commerce. Now Project Aspirations must be rolled out across the UK.

5. Reduce tax complexity
Tolley's tax guide has doubled in size since 1997. Even the Lord Chief Justice laments the complexity of the tax code. For entrepreneurs, there is the cost of compliance and the
threat of HMRC investigation. Often the law is obscure even to tax experts — an unacceptable situation. The solution lies in increased consultation and the creation of an Office of
Tax Simplification.