On Wednesday 6 March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, delivered the UK’s Budget to the House of Commons.
As anticipated with the pre-election budget announcements, all measures were focused on voters. Substantially trailing the opposition in the polls, there were no rabbits pulled out of the hat for the private sector this time.
Labour’s response gave little away about its own approach, as we could have expected from a leader who fears making promises he can’t keep ahead of the election.
Tech sector measures
- Digital transformation in the public sector: Announcement of the Public Sector Productivity Plan, which presents public sector procurement opportunities from GBP 4.2 billion of funding to accelerate public sector adoption of technologies.
- Innovative technologies: Digital Adoption Taskforce to investigate how best to support the adoption of digital technology by SMEs in order to boost their productivity will launch soon.
- Life sciences: GBP 520 million in new funding for Life Sciences manufacturing, with large-scale investment competitions commencing this summer.
- R&D: HMRC expert advisory panel to support the administration of the R&D tax reliefs, providing insights into the cutting-edge R&D occurring across key sectors such as tech and life sciences.
- Space: Up to GBP 100 million to launch the national component of the full GBP 160 million Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (CLEO) programme, which will enable UK researchers and businesses to perform the research and development needed for the next generation of satellite constellations.