Britain has long been a nation of shopkeepers and innovators. Since the Industrial Revolution, our economic success has been built on markets that reward enterprise. Yet today the UK faces a crisis — stagnant productivity, sluggish investment and regional disparities. The solution lies in more competition, ensuring markets work for the many, not the few.
Take the mobile app economy, where Apple and Google’s dominance allows them to charge 30 per cent commission on app developers. In a report I co-authored with the IPPR think tank, we estimate that these app-store commissions will extract up to £1.4 billion from UK app developers this year alone. This could rise to £3.3 billion annually by the end of this parliamentary term. This revenue could otherwise fund innovation,
