The government claims to be keen to boost the enterprise economy, but there is still too much red tape and far too many punitive taxes

When I'm called upon to talk about business to school groups, I'm always keen to stress my belief that work never gets better than when you're running your own show. It is no wonder to me that most friends who took the corporate career path after university, have finally wearied of the constraints placed upon their freedom, the politics of impressing inferior superiors, and the pain of accepting work as a paid actor in somebody else's drama.

They all now want to set up in business—alone or with mates—because earning your crust doing what you choose to do is so much more enriching than achieving someone else's ambitions. Cocooned inside a corporate or public-sector tent, you may feel safer and more important, but settling for this comfortably numb existence is simply no match for the vivid experiences of the entrepreneurial outdoors.

In practice, life outside that tent is not all idyllic freedom. We still have to work hard to keep customers, suppliers, employees, our partners, and the bank happy. And the worst of the monkeys on our backs is the government. It is continually preaching about why we should be investing more to train our people and conditioning us into accepting the latest burdens to what sometimes feels like a work-shy model of a small firm, where everyone takes time off when they fancy it, and the focus is on any stakeholder but shareholders.

The big issue for the nation, as it is for entrepreneurs, is not whether or not it's a great lifestyle choice to run your own business, it's whether it's worth the hassle and risks of trying to grow it. The government has convinced itself we're suffering from a poverty of aspiration, but I'm not sure that's the real problem.

As a business owner, you're likely to own two principal assets—your business and your home. If you were thinking of investing £500,000, you could spend the cash upsizing to a new home, safe in the knowledge that unless you get the timing seriously wrong, there is little chance of doing anything other than doubling your money every few years.

Not only would it be easier to borrow this money, but it would also bring you immediate family benefits. And you could choose to live off the gains, and downshift stress levels. When you finally sell, other than the five per cent stamp duty on purchase and light regressive property taxes, your added contribution to the nation will have been negligible. Despite this, you'll have no capitals gains tax to pay and will be free to retire and take your money with you.

On the other hand—and assuming you could raise the money for such a purpose in the first place—you might opt for countless sleepless nights, blood-thinning levels of stress, and not much time with your family, by investing the money in your business. This way you'll be able to savour the prospect of employing more people and relish being tied up in red tape and squeezed by the tribunals. Most of all, you'll love collecting VAT, income tax, and national insurance and be inspired by paying business rates, petrol duty, and insurance taxes, all taken from the value you added through your blood, sweat and tears.

If you lose money, you will still pay these taxes. If, by some miracle, you stay in the black, you'll pay even more. And when you come to sell the business, you'll pay much more than if you'd bought the house. In fact, you'll pay the same rate as the guy who bought a street of properties, went to bed and contributed nothing.

The Chancellor seems to think that taxing us more than if we'd bought that big house will somehow encourage us to invest in our businesses. This system works against the massive gains the country makes when entrepreneurs are encouraged to do their thing. It acts as a disincentive to entrepreneurial behaviour. Is it any wonder the housing market overheats and we can't get investment into innovations that would make this country great once again?

We have no poverty of aspiration in this country. But government policy makes sure only the mad few Englishmen go out in the entrepreneurial sun.

Alex Pratt OBE is founder of seriousreaders.com and an adviser to the government on innovation and skills.