Last week, Homes for Scotland (HFS) published a report revealing a concerning decline in the small and medium enterprise (SME) home building sector. A day later, the Scottish Government released its quarterly housing statistics. Neither paint a positive picture.

With just two weeks to go until Scotland’s annual event for innovation in business, the CAN DO Innovation Summit, I’ve been reflecting on how to best support start-ups and small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to implement innovation to boost productivity for economic sustainability and social value.

With over 358,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland, accounting for over 99 percent of all private sector firms, SMEs are crucial for the economic and social success of this country.