Sam Dumitriu

Jan 13, 2025 | capx.co | Sam Dumitriu

11 March 2020 @Sam_Dumitriu Photo: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images Photo: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images HMRC red tape is putting start-ups looking for investment in a chicken-egg situation Britain is great at start-ups, but must do more to help businesses scale up The UK is well behind the US when it comes to venture capital investment At today’s Budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s focus will be on containing the economic impact of coronavirus. The top priority will be preventing...

Jan 8, 2025 | samdumitriu.com | Sam Dumitriu

Infrastructure costs matter. They are the reason why major cities in France (Paris-Lyon), Germany (Berlin-Munich) and Spain (Madrid-Barcelona) are connected by high-speed rail links, while major cities in the UK or California aren’t. Building high speed rail in Britain (£464m per mile) costs around 15 times what it does in Spain (), France (£31m per mile) or Germany (£34m per mile). High Speed 2 (HS2) was meant to cut journey times between London and Manchester to just over an hour.

Nov 15, 2024 | telegraph.co.uk | Sam Dumitriu

Rachel Reeves spoke to City leaders at Mansion House Credit: Jordan Pettitt/PA The UK has been regulating for risk, but not regulating for growth.” Not the words of a radical free marketeer, but our Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves speaking to city bigwigs at Mansion House this week. Reeves was referring specifically to the regime of financial regulation introduced after the 2008 financial crash, but her words apply to almost every area of regulation in Britain. At the heart of the...

Nov 12, 2024 | samdumitriu.com | Sam Dumitriu

Britain used to be a nuclear superpower. In 1932, the atom was first split in Britain. In 1956, Britain opened the world’s first full-scale commercial nuclear reactor. Less than ten years later, it had built 21 more. As late as 1965, Britain had more nuclear reactors than the rest of the world combined. Yet Britain hasn’t completed a new nuclear power station in almost thirty years and most of our remaining fleet is set to be taken offline in the next few years.

Oct 25, 2024 | samdumitriu.com | Sam Dumitriu

The impressive UK Day One think tank recently surveyed 43 leading British experts on economic growth (plus myself). One, perhaps surprising, finding from the research was that the experts surveyed listed ‘nuclear power’ as the number two priority area that the government ought to invest its time and political capital in. Why did experts on growth put ‘increasing nuclear energy production’ so high? One reason might be the UK’s high industrial energy costs.