Alex Depledge will leave her role as the Treasury's entrepreneurship adviser on Thursday, the day after John Healey's first Budget. Ministers are expected to use that Budget to unveil a capital gains "rollover relief" for founders, paid for by changes to Business Asset Disposal Relief.
Depledge founded the cleaning marketplace Hassle.com and the architecture and planning platform Resi. Former chancellor Rachel Reeves appointed her in June 2025. In her first year she helped secure an expansion of the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) scheme, which lets growing companies grant employees tax-advantaged share options.
Why she is leaving
In an interview published at the weekend, Depledge said the government was treating the UK's fastest-growing companies as "a bit of a sideshow". In her view, ministers see steel, cars and heavy industry as the "main event".
She also pointed to July's change of chancellor. Under Healey and Treasury minister Johnny Reynolds, she said, she "had to relitigate all the arguments I had already won". She had met Reeves every two weeks but said she had "barely any face time" with her successor.
Depledge did not say what she had proposed for Wednesday's Budget. She said the UK had an 18-month window to secure a place in AI, and argued that around £3tn of domestic pension capital should be working harder for British growth companies.
What founders expect on Wednesday
Several measures that affect the cap table are already expected:
- Rollover relief: founders who sell a business could defer capital gains tax if they reinvest the proceeds in UK companies within a set period. The relief is expected to be paid for by changes to Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR), which lowers the tax on qualifying business sales.
- Non-compete clauses: the Budget is set to confirm they will be scrapped, after tech founders argued they slowed hiring. A carve-out for financial services is expected.
- Capital gains tax: Healey has ruled out an increase in the headline rate.
Brent Hoberman, chair of Founders Forum, said the tech community would wait to see how large the rollover relief is before judging it. Paying for it through BADR means some founders may gain from reinvesting while others lose on a straight exit. Until the thresholds and timeframes are published, the net effect on founders' exit maths is unclear.
The mood
A survey of 400 scale-up founders by the business network Helm found that 73% were not at all confident the Budget would be good for business. Founders have also lobbied for BADR to be protected rather than cut back.
Critics say government support still leans towards starting companies rather than keeping them growing and listed in the UK. That is the gap Depledge says she was hired to close.
Healey delivers the Budget on Wednesday 28 October. Depledge leaves the Treasury the following day and says she intends to return to business.
Original source: City AM — https://www.cityam.com/healeys-startup-adviser-quits-ahead-of-budget-over-sideshow-treatment-of-entrepreneurs/ (additional reporting: Financial Times — https://www.ft.com/content/8b6b5ec9-a5d6-4c2b-bf83-4317e4018ed8)
