evidence: Over the past few decades, there has been a notable shift in the UK economy towards the most innovative, knowledge-intensive industries.Knowledge-intensive services1 now make up 34 per cent of UK output and 29 per cent of total employment.2 Within these sectors, growth has been particularly significant among the professional services, creative and digital sectors. Between 2009 and 2013, employment in these ‘new work’ industries increased at over four times the economy as a whole. Over the last four years employment in creative firms grew by 4.9 per cent, in digital firms by 3.2 per cent and in professional services firms by 12 per cent compared with overall growth of 2 per cent. [...] SMEs, particularly those in the most innovative sectors, are important drivers of employment. Between 2011 and 2014, 29 per cent of SMEs expanded the size of their workforce; this is an increase from 26 per cent between 2008 and 2011. The average number of jobs created by individual SMEs also increased from 4.9 between 2008 and 2011 to 5.4 between 2011 and 2014.