Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, Ben Southwood, discusses David Cameron's immigration speech and the proposed migrant benefit curb on CNBC.
Kate Andrews debates the benefits of Black Friday on Sky News
Communications Manager of the Adam Smith Institute, Kate Andrews, debates the benefits of Black Friday, for businesses and consumers, on Sky News.
Sam Bowman discusses fair trade on BBC Radio 4
Deputy Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, spoke to BBC Radio 4's programme You and Yours about the push to make supermarkets only carry free trade products. Listen to the interview here. (Starts 33:10)
The UK's Net Migration Figures Are Nothing To Worry About - Philip Salter writes for Forbes
Director of TEN, Philip Salter, writes on the findings of their latest report, Made in the UK: Unlocking the Door to International Entrepreneurs, in Forbes:
The UK’s net migration figures have come out. Plenty of people are upset because it has been calculated that on net we have 260,000 immigrants, up from 182,000 in the previous 12 months.
Prime Minister David Cameron had promised to keep net migration down to tens of thousands. Short of forcible emigration, the target was always impossible – partly because of our open borders with the EU, but also because students are included in the net migration figures. In fact, international students are the largest group of migrants from outside the EU counted in the government’s net migration figures, representing around a third of all people coming into Britain.
Students should be taken out of the net migration figures. Lord Bilimoria CBE writes as much in the foreword of a new report released today, Made in the UK: Unlocking the Door to International Graduates. Our report, which we undertook with the National Union of Students, considers the position of international students – that is, students from outside the European Union – who want to start a business in the UK.
Read the full article here.
The survey found that the UK is losing its talented international students with entrepreneurial ambitions to other countries. Although nearly half, 42%, of international students intend to start up their own business following graduation, only 33% of these students, or 14% of the total, want to do so in the UK.
'Don’t worry about net migration – worry about the young entrepreneurs we are turning away' - Philip Salter writes for Conservative Home
Director of TEN, Philip Salter, writes on the findings of their latest report, Made in the UK: Unlocking the Door to International Entrepreneurs, in Conservative Home:
Long gone are the days when Britain ruled the waves, but there’s life in the old world yet. Just consider our universities, which remain some of the best on the planet. However, though we can attract the world’s top students we have an immigration system that boots many of them out the moment they finish studying.Bewilderingly, students are included in the net migration figures. So today’s confirmation of the inevitable failure of David Cameron’s target of keeping net migration to the tens of thousands can only do more harm to the case for the benefits of immigration. A sizeable chunk of the additional 260,000 people in our country are students, with the latest figures showing that there were 222,941 study visas granted, including dependants, in the year ending September 2014.
Read the full article here.
The survey found that the UK is losing its talented international students with entrepreneurial ambitions to other countries. Although nearly half, 42%, of international students intend to start up their own business following graduation, only 33% of these students, or 14% of the total, want to do so in the UK.
Press Release: ASI responds to migrant benefit curbs
Commenting on David Cameron's immigration speech, Deputy Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, said:
The Prime Minister is right to praise immigration and we welcome the fact that he is pulling back from crude number-based targets, which have no place in a free market economy. And it is a huge relief that he does not want to end freedom of movement within the EU, which would be disastrous.Benefits tourism is much less of a problem than most people believe, because benefits are already quite tightly restricted and most immigrants want to work. But if restricting things like tax credits, child benefit and social housing reduces people’s fears about immigration, so be it.
The two big reasons the UK has attracted so many EU migrants recently is that our economy has been doing better than expected and the Eurozone has been doing much worse than expected. Combined immigration from France, Spain, Portugal and Italy alone has exceeded 100,000 over the past year.
The economy has proved more than able to absorb these and other migrants, and to do so without hurting employment for native Britons. That is exactly what most economists would predict. But along with reforms to benefits we should make it easier for student and highly-skilled non-EU immigrants to come to the UK. Restricting access to the welfare state may be wise – restricting access to our labour markets is not.
Notes to editors:
For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Kate Andrews, Communications Manager, at kate@adamsmith.org / 07584 778207.
The Adam Smith Institute is an independent libertarian think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.
TEN report "Made in the UK" features in the Times Higher Education Supplement
TEN's latest report, Made in the UK: Unlocking the Door to International Entrepreneurs, is featured in the Times Higher Education Supplement:
While 42 per cent of the 1,600 international graduate students polled by the National Union of Students said they wanted to set up a business after graduation, only 33 per cent wanted to start one in the UK.
Almost one-third also thought that the processes in place for international students to work once they have finished studying in the UK was worse than other countries, according to the report, titled Made in the UK: Unlocking the Door to International Entrepreneurs, which was published on 27 November.
The report, which was written in partnership with The Entrepreneurs Network thinktank, appears amid growing concerns that international students are choosing to study in the US or Australia.Opportunities for graduate employment in the UK have become more limited, following the abolition in 2012 of the post-study work visa, which allowed graduates to work for two years.
Read the full article here.
The survey found that the UK is losing its talented international students with entrepreneurial ambitions to other countries. Although nearly half, 42%, of international students intend to start up their own business following graduation, only 33% of these students, or 14% of the total, want to do so in the UK.
Press Release: Returning the East Coast mainline to the private sector is the right decision
Commenting on the franchise of the East Coast mainline rail route, Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, Ben Southwood, said:
Returning the East Coast to the private sector is the right decision. Franchising might not be the ideal solution but it has been consistent with 20 years of improvement in rail.We may regret that the system is not perfect, which could require a market to pick the right organisational form, but we know what the solution isn't, when looking at what happened when the state took a leading role in rail, 1918-1995.
With the exception of the National Express overbid of 2007-2009, private companies have run the East Coast mainline well—GNER saw rising satisfaction throughout its 1996-2007 tenure.
In any case the line is uniquely easy to run profitably: it has few commuter passengers and is mainly used for occasional long journeys.
Notes to editors:
For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Kate Andrews, Communications Manager, at kate@adamsmith.org / 07584 778207.
The Adam Smith Institute is an independent libertarian think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.
Migrant entrepreneurs are shunning the UK - Annabel Denham writes for CityAM
Programmes Director of The Entrepreneurs Network, Annabel Denham, writes on the findings of TEN's latest survey, Made in the UK: Unlocking the Door to International Entrepreneurs, in CityAM. The survey found that the UK is losing its talented international students with entrepreneurial ambitions to other countries. Although nearly half, 42%, of international students intend to start up their own business following graduation, only 33% of these students, or 14% of the total, want to do so in the UK.
Our new report, Made in the UK: Unlocking the Door to International Entrepreneurs, conducted with the National Union of Students, shows just how beneficial retaining international talent could be: as many as 42 per cent of current international (non-EU) students intend to set up their own businesses following graduation. But our research also reveals a worrying disconnect between potential and policy: just a third want to found their business in the UK, and just 18 per cent think the processes in place for post-study work in the UK are better than in other countries.
More must be done to encourage these students to start up companies in Britain when they finish their studies, and to this end the government needs to reform the graduate entrepreneur visa, introduced in 2012 to try to plug the gap left by ending the post-study option.
Read the full article here.
Press Release: Survey finds visa system is failing international graduate entrepreneurs
A ground-breaking survey reveals that the visa system is failing international graduate entrepreneurs who want to start a business in the UK. The report, Made in the UK: Unlocking the Door to International Entrepreneurs, released by The Entrepreneurs Network in partnership with National Union of Students (NUS), surveyed 1,599 graduate international students.
The survey finds a significant proportion of international students have entrepreneurial ambitions; however, in a competitive global economy, the UK isn’t the only option:
- Although nearly half, 42%, of international students intend to start up their own business following graduation, only 33% of these students, or 14% of the total, want to do so in the UK.
The Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa was set up in 2012 to encourage international graduates to start their businesses here. However, international students surveyed aren’t convinced by it:
- Just 2% of respondents intending to start a business following graduation applied for the UK Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa, with almost two thirds, 62%, saying they didn’t even consider it.
- Less than half (46%) of respondents think their institution is certified to endorse them for a Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa, while 43% are not sure, despite 101 of the 163 UK Universities being certified by the Home Office.
- Only 18% think that the UK has better post-study processes in place for international students than other countries; 32% think it is worse than other countries.
Based on these and further findings, the report puts forward nine recommendations for government, including:
- Removing the Tier 4 ban on self-employment for those working within an institutional programme (curricular or co-curricular) or other accelerator.
- Allowing UKTI-approved accelerators to endorse international students in their programmes under the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) scheme.
- De-coupling the risk for educational institutions in endorsing international graduates for Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visas from institutions’ Tier 4 license. This should be made explicit in the official Home Office guidance and in the way the Home Office applies its audit procedures for institutions.
- Reinstating a post-study work visa, de-coupled from the sponsor system, to allow international students to explore markets and industry before finalising their business idea for the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) application. In fact, 81% of the respondents considering starting their own business are interested in the possibility of permanent residency under the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa.
Philip Salter, Director of The Entrepreneurs Network, commented:
This report shows that our visa system isn’t supporting the entrepreneurial ambitions of international graduates.
In its current form, the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa isn’t fit for purpose. We are training some of the world’s best and brightest young people at our world-class universities only to push them to set up their businesses overseas.
Lord Bilimoria CBE, founder of Cobra and Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, commented in the Foreword to the report:
As ever, it is the government’s attitude to immigration and student visas that is the most damning. Many students continue to feel a sense of alienation from the government, and we must continue to press for a more welcoming and attractive environment.
It is also damaging that the government continues to include international student numbers within the immigration figures, although the whole notion of an immigration cap is harmful. The reintroduction of the Post-Study Work Visa for postgraduates is rightly seen as a vital policy.
Alex Macpherson, Head of Ventures at Octopus Investments, commented:
Governments across the globe are considering ways to encourage the smartest graduates with the most potential to root themselves in their countries to develop ideas, create jobs and ultimately build world changing companies.
The growth in entrepreneurship that we’re seeing in the UK, in our schools, universities and business community, along with the development of new accelerators and increased sources of venture funding has put the UK in a strong, internationally competitive position to attract and retain some of today’s most talented and entrepreneurial minds. If we want the UK to continue to develop global billion dollar businesses then we need to ensure this remains the case and do everything that we can to encourage international students with entrepreneurial ambitions to remain on our shores and start businesses here.
Notes to Editors:
For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Kate Andrews, Communications Manager, at kate@adamsmith.org / 07584 778207 or Philip Salter, Director of TEN, at philip@tenentrepreneurs.org / 07919 355290.
The Entrepreneurs Network is a cross-party think tank designed to bring entrepreneurs to the forefront of political discourse and help make Britain the best place in the world to start a business.
The Entrepreneurs Network is based within the Adam Smith Institute and is supported by Octopus Investments, one of the UK’s fastest growing fund management companies specialising in smaller company investing.