British households would be £5,000 richer if we were more innovative. Let’s unleash our talents | Gordon Brown

British households would be £5,000 richer if the country were more innovative, according to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. During a conference in Manchester, Brown emphasized the need to unleash the talents of small companies and turn them into global success stories. Innovation must be at the forefront of government policy to address critical issues such as cancer, dementia, antibiotic resistance, energy sustainability, and the transformation of education, healthcare, and social care through artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and biology.

The UK has a wealth of assets, including four of the world's top 10 universities and 16 of the top 100 for producing spin-offs and startups based on intellectual property. Despite making up less than 1% of the world's population, the UK contributes significantly to global research, producing 6% of research papers, nearly 9% of citations, and 12% of the most highly cited research.

Brown argued that the UK has the potential to become an innovation powerhouse, similar to the US and China. However, the nation must harness its inventors, investors, and industrialists to develop transformative technologies that can benefit millions of people.