THE new director general of the CBI, Carolyn Fairbairn, has said the importance of fast-growing medium sized firms to the UK economy deserves greater recognition. Ms Fairbairn will today tell a summit organised by the employers organisation that it found the UK’s 3,000 scale-up medium-sized businesses contributed £59 billion to the UK economy between 2010 and 2013, making the difference between recession and recovery. The CBI defines scale-ups as firms that grew at an average rate of 20 per cent annually over the three years. It reckons they make up only two per cent of UK business but are responsible for one in six jobs. Ms Fairbairn will say: “We found that seven in ten scale-ups are located outside of London - from tech companies in Cambridge, to manufacturers in the Midlands and Dundee’s gaming industry. Scale-ups have the potential to help rebalance our economy and bring recovery to every corner of the UK.”