Ian Chapman, the boss of UK Research and Innovation, which spends £8 billion of taxpayer money each year on research and innovation, has been told by the government to "focus and do fewer things better".

He explained: "When you make choices some will miss out, but if you don't make choices everybody loses out."

However, Stephen Tulip, UK manager of the App Association, has warned that a change in approach could have a hugely detrimental impact on the business sector.

He told the BBC: "Reducing budgets and staffing for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) support at Innovate UK is the opposite of what our domestic start-up and entrepreneur community needs.

"Cutting access to expertise and funding for UK SMEs will harm the UK's growth agenda and force start-ups to look elsewhere for investment and support."

This viewpoint has been echoed by Mike Griffin, who actually created a sustainable 3D printing company with the help of Innovate UK.

Griffin warned that companies need meaningful government support in order to get their ambitions off the ground.

He said: "For small companies, early-stage backing is the bridge to market.

"If support shifts toward bigger, later-stage winners, many practical, life-changing innovations won't survive long enough to scale."