The UK’s army of entrepreneurs and small to medium sized firms with less than 250 staff is increasingly seen by politicians as the key to plugging the still gaping hole in the nation’s finances.

In fact, according to shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna speaking at a gathering of design and construction last week, the creativity and enterprise that they bring is central to plans to rekindling and reigniting the lost but not dead “British dream” for economic and social success.  

“SMEs provide two thirds of private sector jobs and half of private sector turnover in this country,” Umanna told the gathering organised by architect John McAslan to promote his vision for so-called “responsible entrepreneurship” in and around the design and construction industry.

“But you do so much more beyond that with your innovation and creativity, something that we do so well,” Umanna added. “I think that our job is to enable you to be a success - as policy makers we are determined that you should achieve you aspiration. The British dream is real and we need to talk about it more often.”

"Our job is to enable you to be a success. The British dream is real and we need to talk about it more often”

Chuka Umanna, shadow business secretary

“What can we do to foster good business? We punch above our weight in the UK but we are at a crossroads we can continue to punch above our weight,” he said. “Ultimately what you want is to be the masters of your own destiny – to be your own boss run your own show and call the shots. You want to be empowered to make a difference and don’t want government to come in in a top down way and instructing you what to do or imposing a viewpoint.”

McAslan drew on his own example of entrepreneurship highlighting the way that his business has always strived to mix creativity and good business with investment in the community and socially responsible projects and programmes. 

Examples such as the new N17 start-up practice specifically set up at the heart of the recent riots in Tottenham, north London as the on-going McAslan Foundation bursary an example of his commitment to investing in the future.

Piers Linney, chief executive of cloud computing pioneer Outsourcery and the latest addition to the BBC’s Dragon’s Den series, agreed that  to  

“Entrepreneurs make economies – if you look at the history of any country or empire you will see that it is either entrepreneurs or wars – entrepreneurs make economies work,” he said pointing out that taking risks was key to success and as such hard work and weathering ups and downs was part of the environment of small business success. 

"Entrepreneurs make economies – if you look at the history of any country or empire you will see that it is either entrepreneurs or wars" Piers Linney, BBC's Dragon Den

“There is always a degree of risk appetite within entrepreneurs,” he said. “Failure is part of learning in business. The entrepreneur never goes backwards you have to go forwards.”