UK AI bosses want to kill non-competes and long notice periods for good
Key Points
- 22 UK tech leaders signed an open letter calling for a non-compete ban
- The letter also targets long notice periods and garden leave
- Signatories include ElevenLabs, Synthesia and Inherent Laboratories bosses
- Seven investors, including Index Ventures, back the campaign
- The government is already weighing reform of non-compete clauses
22 UK tech leaders, led by AI lab Inherent Laboratories, have called for a ban on lengthy non-competes.
The open letter, titled Free to Start and Scale, launched on Tuesday (29 September) and also targets long notice periods and garden leave.
“We therefore call on the Government to ban lengthy post-termination restrictions and restrict the use of extended notice periods and garden leave,” the letter stated.
Signatories include Inherent Laboratories CEO Tantum Collins, ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski, Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli and Fractile CEO Walter Goodwin.
Four Inherent Laboratories executives signed the letter, alongside bosses from Callosum, CuspAI, Boltz, Latent Labs, Fuse Energy, Odyssey and Ineffable Intelligence.
A non-compete clause stops a worker from joining a rival or starting a competing business for a set period after leaving a job.
Garden leave keeps an employee on the payroll during their notice period while barring them from working, which delays their move to a new employer.
The signatories said a large and growing number of British workers are bound by these restrictions, which hold back start-ups and scale-ups.
They argued that labour mobility matters most in the technology sector, where contracts “written for another era” put the UK’s tech growth at risk.
The letter pointed to California, where workers can start or join new companies overnight.
“If it is easier for companies to hire in California, they will hire in California,” the letter stated.
The signatories described the problem as a collective action issue, as start-ups cannot drop the restrictions alone while dominant tech companies use them to make competing harder.
“These terms lower wages, reduce competition, and undermine the innovation that drives economic growth,” the letter stated.
The letter backed the government’s plans to consider a non-compete ban, but warned that firms could turn to longer notice periods and garden leave instead.
The signatories said this would undermine the government’s objectives, cause endless litigation and stop Britain’s most dynamic businesses from starting and scaling.
The previous Conservative government announced plans in May 2023 to cap non-competes at three months, but the change never became law before the 2024 general election.
The Department for Business and Trade published a working paper in November 2025 setting out reform options, including an outright ban on non-compete clauses.
