Alex Depledge MBE has quit as the Treasury’s entrepreneurship adviser ahead of the Budget, blaming the “sideshow” treatment of scaleup entrepreneurs.
Depledge was appointed to the newly created role by former Chancellor Rachel Reeves in June 2025 but said under John Healey – set to deliver his first Budget on Wednesday – the Government was instead directing taxpayer money towards traditional industries.
She will leave the role on Thursday.
“Keeping scaleups on the fringes underestimates the contribution of our greatest companies, and we need to support and develop them on British shores at all costs”, she told The Sunday Times.
“We treat them as a bit of a sideshow.”
The serial founder, who grew up in Bradford, exited cleaning marketplace Hassle.com in 2015 before founding PropTech Resi. She stepped down from ‘the UK’s largest residential architect’ at the end of last year.
Depledge said: “Where’s the real economy? They think it’s over here with steel, cars and hard hats, that this is the ‘main event’.
“And my argument has always been: no, scaleups are the main event.”
Depledge, who had held fortnightly meetings with Reeves, continued: “With John Healey and Johnny Reynolds, I had to relitigate all the arguments I had already won – and win them again.”
She said she had “barely any face time” with Healey.
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The November 2025 Budget contained several startup-friendly measures including tax changes benefiting employee share schemes, reduced stamp duty for newly listed companies and reforms to government procurement.
Last year Depledge was also credited with helping to secure an expansion of the Enterprise Management Incentives scheme, allowing growing firms to offer tax-advantaged share options to employees.
Warning that Britain risks missing out on the economic benefits of AI unless it supports domestic tech firms, she said: “We are in grave danger of not having a seat at the table. The window is 18 months. That’s it.”
She also indicated that she would return to business: “At my very core, I’m an entrepreneur.”