Verdicts · Business
What the UK thinks about business
Settled referendums
10
since Jun 2026
Votes cast
672
all time, on business
This week
0
votes · 0 referendums settled
Written opinions
15
all time, left by voters
Votes each week
0so far this week
All-time business highlights
Biggest landslide
YES 80%
Should we ban leveraged buyouts of UK businesses and sports clubs?
80% of 247 votes went the same way.
Closest result
50 / 50
Should the government investigate JD.com’s UK expansion over state subsidy concerns?
Dead level — an exact tie.
Most debated
YES 80%
Should we ban leveraged buyouts of UK businesses and sports clubs?
7 written opinions.
The latest verdicts
Should we ban leveraged buyouts of UK businesses and sports clubs?
The verdict
Owners taking the upside while workers, creditors and supporters carry the debt became the room’s governing complaint: voters backed a ban, and the lone No voice never supplied the contrary case.
Should UK financial regulators take a more proactive stance on AI risks?
The verdict
On a question that pits innovation against precaution, the chamber came down firmly on the side of the guardrails, backing calls for regulators to get ahead of AI risk in finance by better than three to one, with scepticism thinnest of all among the over-65s.
Should the UK invest £62m to build domestic space capabilities instead of leasing them?
The verdict
Backing sovereign space infrastructure over foreign leases drew support across every generation and both sexes, with the chamber endorsing the £62m spend by better than two to one.
Should the UK create a captive insurance regime with lighter regulation to boost competitiveness?
The verdict
A narrow win for deregulation dressed up as competitiveness, with the chamber's youngest voters near-unanimous for it while the middle-aged majority split down the middle — a technocratic question that mostly failed to generate a real fight.
Should the government crack down on illegal high street shopfronts?
The verdict
Yes carried the chamber 17-8, but the headline number hides a split running clean down gender lines: men backed a crackdown almost unanimously while every woman who voted said no.
Should the government reform the ZEV Mandate targets to protect UK car industry jobs and investment?
The verdict
Yes carried the chamber, 15 votes to 4, with every woman who voted backing a rewrite of the ZEV Mandate while men split more evenly, six to four.
Every business verdict
- YES 80%Should we ban leveraged buyouts of UK businesses and sports clubs?Owners taking the upside while workers, creditors and supporters carry the debt became the room’s governing complaint: voters backed a ban, and the lone No voice never supplied the contrary case.
- YES 78%Should UK financial regulators take a more proactive stance on AI risks?On a question that pits innovation against precaution, the chamber came down firmly on the side of the guardrails, backing calls for regulators to get ahead of AI risk in finance by better than three to one, with scepticism thinnest of all among the over-65s.
- YES 69%Should the UK invest £62m to build domestic space capabilities instead of leasing them?Backing sovereign space infrastructure over foreign leases drew support across every generation and both sexes, with the chamber endorsing the £62m spend by better than two to one.
- YES 55%Should the UK create a captive insurance regime with lighter regulation to boost competitiveness?A narrow win for deregulation dressed up as competitiveness, with the chamber's youngest voters near-unanimous for it while the middle-aged majority split down the middle — a technocratic question that mostly failed to generate a real fight.
- YES 68%Should the government crack down on illegal high street shopfronts?Yes carried the chamber 17-8, but the headline number hides a split running clean down gender lines: men backed a crackdown almost unanimously while every woman who voted said no.
- YES 79%Should the government reform the ZEV Mandate targets to protect UK car industry jobs and investment?Yes carried the chamber, 15 votes to 4, with every woman who voted backing a rewrite of the ZEV Mandate while men split more evenly, six to four.
- YES 58%Should the government keep the new steel safeguarding quotas in place?A narrow 58-42 win for keeping the steel quotas, carried almost entirely by one bloc: the 25-34s, who backed the safeguards 7 to 2 while every other age group with more than a couple of votes split or leaned the other way.
- TIEDShould the government investigate JD.com’s UK expansion over state subsidy concerns?A dead-heat, 13-13, on whether Whitehall should probe JD.com's Joybuy expansion — and the only bloc with real numbers, 25-34s, split exactly down the middle too, 6-6.
- NO 68%Should Norman City Council make its data center moratorium permanent?NO carried a comfortable 19-9 win, with the platform's largest cohort, 25-34s, rejecting a permanent moratorium 10-5 and men breaking against it far harder than women.
- YES 62%Should the UK government strengthen steel import quotas to protect domestic producers?Yes carried the day 62-38 on steel quotas, but the youngest voters in the chamber were the only age group to say no, and the split by gender ran wider still.