With Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ promise to “invest, invest, invest”, the Autumn Budget was the first clear indication of the new government’s priorities for driving economic growth.
In the preceding PMQs, the outgoing Leader of the Opposition urged the Prime Minister to “channel his inner tech bro”. And while there were some encouraging announcements on this front – like £950m for skills capital and additional R&D funding – the overriding question afterwards was whether this was a good Budget for business.
Earlier this month, the government announced an impressive £63.5bn in foreign direct investment at the International Investment Summit – a significant demonstration of its ambition to position Britain as a global hub for investment.
While this additional capital is certainly a welcome boost, FDI alone is not enough to protect the UK’s startup ecosystem, which has such a vital role to play in maintaining Britain’s competitive edge. Across the country, entrepreneurs looked to the Budget for signs of government support to help them drive the innovation needed to solve the major challenges society faces today. Did they get it?…