https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/uks-bureaucracy-blasted-for-delaying-virgin-orbit-launch/
Robert wrote:

During the hearings CAA officials justified their actions, and appeared unwilling to consider any changes.

Here is another company adversely affected by Britain’s slow CAA, and we don’t know how many others have been, too. From the linked article from the above link:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/01/virgin-orbit-mission-fail-satellite-launches-uk/

[Welsh company] Space Forge, which wants to produce alloys in the microgravity of space, was hoping to become the first company to successfully bring a satellite back down to Earth. But it said that lengthy delays by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) coupled with the launch failure had left it six months behind the competition when it had been six months ahead. It now plans to launch with SpaceX in the US.

Patrick McCall, non-executive director at Space Forge, told MPs on the Science and Technology Select Committee, that if the company sought to launch again in the UK it would be given “short shrift” by investors. “I think unless there is a seismic change in that approach the UK is not going to be competitive from a launch perspective,” he said.

So, we have a potential customer that lost a year of business due to CAA delays, possibly taking away a valuable advantage in timing of its entry into the space manufacturing market, but also the start of its revenue stream. The CAA delays are bad for business, and it seems to me that the CAA, which is unwilling to consider changing its ways, may be working for its own purposes rather than for its citizen’s purposes. A responsible governmental regulation bureau would make sure that it is helping, not hindering, its people and their companies. Jobs may flee Great Britain if the CAA does not get its act together, and Britain’s space industry could be just as damaged as it has been for the past half century when its government first abandoned its launch industry.

We have been waiting half a century for the promised superior products that could come from space manufacturing. Government agencies have been more about doing research for the future than helping companies provide goods for the present. But now that having these products seems imminent, we discover that once again government is delaying them.

For half a century, people have been asking what good it is for governments to spend money on space rather than give that money to poor people so that they can continue to not work. The answer has always been that benefits from space were just about to come. Now that they are almost here, governmental bureaucracies are continuing to delay them.

How much cheaper would these exotic materials be once Starship can put the raw materials into space for ridiculously low cost? Yet the US’s FAA can’t be bothered to approve a two-year-old SpaceX application for a test launch.

We humans created governments in order for them to help us, but instead they hinder us, then pat themselves on the back and assure themselves that they have done their jobs well. They haven’t, but the bureaucrats go home at the end of the day with a nice paycheck and a fat pension, and the poor are still worse off.

Richard seems to have caught the bad luck bug that plagued poor Gary Hudson,

One of the tricky things about starting a company or a new product line is to be sure to have enough facilities to provide the initial service, which would be expected to be for a low number of customers willing to try something new, and to price the product so that customers come to your door and so that you can expand as demand grows. Virgin Orbit rightly thought that one aircraft would be sufficient to start, but they wrongly thought that launching from the UK would be a good PR move.

However Robert’s point is well taken, that had the UK’s CAA issued a launch license in a timely manner then the company most likely would have launched another payload by now and remained solvent.

From the article:

The ambition [for the UK] is to turn the country into a global player – from manufacturing satellites, to building rockets and creating new spaceports.

The lesson everyone is learning: doing space business in the UK may cause bankruptcy. Investors are unlikely to be enthusiastic about companies that want to launch there. One of the desirable features of small launchers is an ability for relatively quick service, but with the CAA taking so long to approve a standard launch, that availability for quick launch stops being a sales point for launches from the UK. The UK is likely way behind in the competition as a global player, and it probably does not know it yet. If I could launch in four months with Rocket Lab or in nine months with a UK launch, I am unlikely to choose the UK, because with the former company, I can start generating a revenue stream five months earlier. That is important for any company, not just small or startup companies

An advantage of small satellites is their low cost to produce, low cost to launch, and quick manufacture time. These are three desirable attributes for new companies or small companies that do not have a lot of money and are under schedule pressure to begin revenue service with their next satellite. Even a reasonably well financed company, such as Virgin Orbit, can run out of money if revenues are delayed.

I wish Virgin Orbit luck in finding new funds. Launch is a tough business, and I would hate to lose any of our promising entrants to the business.

Although more than a hundred companies expressed interest in starting smallsat launch services, only about a score of them have shown progress toward that goal, and only about a third of those are launching or on the verge of launching. The growing cadence of SpaceX Transporter launches of multiple smallsats shows that the demand for smallsat launches is continuing to grow. These emerging smallsat launch companies should be able to do well in their field, but only if government does not get in their way.