Past Event: Tuesday, February 4, 2025

The UK is facing a productivity challenge. To reverse this trend, businesses need access to capital; however, high interest rates and other factors make accessing the funding required to invest in efficiency-enhancing areas difficult.

On 4 February, we convened a panel of economists, lenders, and business leaders to share their perspectives on how organisations can enhance their access to funding now and in the long term, and drive UK productivity forwards.

You can catch up on the recording and key highlights here.

See who spoke ↓ 

The discussion covered:

  • how the economic outlook and market trends are impacting the availability of capital for businesses
  • the key factors in positioning a business to attract investment now and in the longer term – from ESG factors to their use of AI
  • what businesses considering a public listing need to know
  • the government support that is available to businesses and upcoming announcements that may impact access to funding.

 

Meet the panel

Susannah Streeter (panel host)
Global financial commentator and former BBC Business presenter
Susannah Streeter (panel host)

Susannah provides award-winning analysis to the world’s media as part of her role as Head of Money and Markets for the UK’s largest retail investment platform, Hargreaves Lansdown. With a career spanning two decades in broadcasting, she has presented flagship global business shows on TV and radio, and now speaks and chairs debates at major conferences around the world.

Schellion Horn
Head of Economic Consulting, Grant Thornton UK

Schellion Horn is a partner leading our economic consulting team. A postgraduate economist by training, she brings over 20 years of experience providing regulatory and competition economic advice, including expert testimony, to the panel. Her clients include public sector entities and corporates, and she works in the UK and internationally with experience in consultancies and in industry.

Nick Holder's image
Investor, Business Growth Fund

Nick is in the Midlands investment team, based in Birmingham. He has more than 20 years transactional and private equity experience as both an advisor and an investor. He has significant expertise in leading investments in technology, business services and consumer markets – working alongside entrepreneurs and business owners as they grow and scale their companies.

Tom Pope headshot
Deputy Chief Economist, Institute for Government

The Institute for Government (IfG) is a leading independent think tank that works to make government more effective. Tom leads its work on local growth, and leads and contributes to projects on public services, fiscal policy and regulation. He has an MSc in economics and was previously an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, working on public finances and tax policy, before joining IfG in 2019.

Deepak-Parekh
Senior Director, Shawbrook Bank
Deepak Parekh Follow on LinkedIn

Having previously spent almost a decade at RBS, Deepak has extensive experience of supporting UK-based businesses with debt lending. He leads Shawbrook Bank’s Financial Sponsors product offering in the Midlands, supporting sponsor-led buyouts. Before joining Shawbrook, he was a partner at Springboard CF, where he focused on debt advisory mandates.

Tim Davis
Regional Head, UK Primary Markets, London Stock Exchange

Tim joined The London Stock Exchange in April 2019 and has responsibility for potential AIM and Main Market IPOs across The Midlands, Wales, East Anglia, Cambridge and Oxford. He spent the previous 20 years working across a range of industry sectors in UK small and mid-cap advisory and broking roles.