In mid‑June 2025, Chancellor Rachel Reeves made a historic announcement: Alex Depledge MBE has been appointed as the first-ever Entrepreneurship Advisor to the UK Treasury. This marks a major milestone—not just in her career, but in how the government plans to engage with startups and scale-ups across Britain.
Depledge, a recognized champion of female entrepreneurship and a seasoned founder, brings both passion and proven expertise. In this privileged role, she’ll work two days a week advising on policies ahead of the Autumn 2025 Budget, aiming to slash barriers to growth and overhaul startup support structures.
Background: The Journey to Leadership
Academic and Corporate Origins
Born in Bradford and educated at the University of Nottingham (with further studies at the University of Chicago), Depledge started her career at global consulting firm Accenture. It was her four-year immersion in corporate strategy and culture that shaped her managerial instincts.
Entrepreneurial Breakthrough: Hassle.com
In 2012, Depledge co‑founded Hassle.com, a booking platform for vetted domestic cleaners. Within just a few years, the startup attracted significant investment, grew rapidly, and was acquired by Helpling in 2015—reportedly for around £27–32 million.
From this experience, Alex honed a customer-first culture, deliberately hiring “odd balls” over pedigree candidates and turning early team members into company leaders. She often recounts learning Lean Startup principles and building a unified company culture across distributed teams .
PropTech Innovation: Resi
In 2017, Alex teamed up with CTO Jules Coleman to launch Resi, an architectural-tech platform democratizing home renovation and retrofit for UK homeowners. Resi streamlines complex processes—planning, design, budgeting—bringing clarity and control back to clients.
By 2024, Resi had actively served thousands, championed sustainable retrofitting, and cemented its mission to improve UK housing.
The Treasury Appointment: What It Involves
Role & Responsibilities
Depledge’s advisory brief lasts from June 23, 2025 through the Autumn Budget, working confidentially with Treasury officials, ministers, and stakeholders. Key domains include:
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Access to finance for scaling firms
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Regulatory reform
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Public procurement
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Talent retention
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Innovation and R&D incentives
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International competitiveness
Her mission: connect the Treasury directly to the needs and voices of high-growth startups, fostering a bottom-up approach to economic policy.
Strategic Economic Shift
The UK government has already signaled notable reforms—extending the EIS and VCT schemes to 2035 and boosting R&D funding to £22.6 billion annually by 2029/30. Alex’s appointment complements these efforts, drawing on lived startup wisdom to ensure policy meets real-world needs .
Why Alex? Sidebar of Her Strengths
First-Hand Scale-Up Experience
Alex understands growth from inside the trenches. She has scaled two businesses organically and through acquisition—bringing firsthand experience of what helps and what hinders fast-growing firms.
This is crucial for the Treasury, which has traditionally been more attuned to larger corporations than to dynamic, high-growth SMEs.
Championing Female Founders
Throughout her public career, Depledge has challenged gender disparities—highlighting the difficulty women face not in starting businesses, but in financing their scale-up journey .
Her leadership as the UK’s first female Entrepreneurship Advisor underlines the government’s shift toward inclusive growth.
Systems Thinker
Her work at Resi showcases expertise in blending regulation, finance, customer support, design, and sustainability. She understands how fragmented systems create friction—and how strategic alignment can accelerate innovation.
The Broader Economic Canvas
Scale‑Ups Powering Growth
Though only 0.6% of UK SMEs, scale-ups generate £1.4 trillion in turnover—55% of total SME revenue. Their centrality to economic vitality makes them ideal focal points for national strategy.
Support Through Reforms
Policy moves—like enhanced R&D funding, tax relief extensions, and Depledge’s direct input—underscore a shift toward stronger support frameworks for fast-growing companies.
Immediate Priorities & Expected Impact
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Gap analysis: Identifying policy bottlenecks—from access to capital to skills shortages.
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Roundtables: Bringing founders, investors, and industry voices into the room.
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Regulatory alignment: Streamlining processes for startups navigating procurement, compliance, and planning.
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Gender equity: Advocating for female-focused growth financing.
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Budget input: Feeding startup intelligence directly into Autumn Budget decisions.
Challenges Ahead
Balancing Stakeholder Needs
Depledge must harmonize investor interests, public sector goals, and founder realities—often pulling in diverging directions.
Ethical Transparency
As a non-executive director of Persimmon Homes and with private holdings in Resi and edited boards, she must manage conflicts under Treasury ethics rules.
Measuring Success
Concrete, measurable progress—like increased startup financing, reduced administrative burden, or more women-led scale-ups—will determine whether this advisory role is transformative or symbolic.
Public and Sector Reaction
Early industry signals are upbeat. The Entrepreneurs Network noted that 84% of founders feel misunderstood by the government—and see Depledge’s appointment as timely and necessary.
Director-level commentary has praised the move, urging the government to follow through with substantial investment and policy reform at the Treasury table.
A Personal Ethics
Alex is known for leading with purpose. She’s championed:
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Fair parental leave as part of company culture and policy .
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Workplace culture—employing “odd balls” and building meritocratic, human-centric teams.
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Sustainability—especially via Resi’s retrofit mission to reduce carbon footprint in UK homes.
These principles define not only her businesses, but also how she’ll influence public policy.
What Happens Next?
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Early summer: Stakeholder roundtables and policy mapping.
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Autumn: Direct input into the Budget 2025.
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Public updates: Likely through HM Treasury releases and possible parliamentary statements.
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Longer term: A permanent advisory structure could emerge—if her work proves impactful, this role may become institutionalized.
Why It Matters for You
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Startups & Founders: This is a rare opportunity for your realities to inform national policy—your pain points can be heard and acted on.
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Investors & Ecosystem Builders: Financial and regulatory tools may be retooled to better support scale-ups and female-led innovation.
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General Public: More agile, globally competitive UK firms may bring better jobs, new services, and stronger economic resilience.
Conclusion: Alex Depledge’s Legacy in Motion
From cleaning domestic homes to redesigning national policy, Alex Depledge’s journey is meteoric—and purposeful. Her Treasury advisory post represents a pivotal shift in how the UK government supports entrepreneurial growth.
With her entrepreneurial DNA, ethical leadership, and structural foresight, Alex is positioned to rewrite the playbook on public-corporate relations and spark a new era of scale-up empowerment. If this role leads to deeper capital access, smoother scaling, and truly inclusive support, it won’t just rank on Google—it will go down in history.
