which will most affect your electronics business?

While the government highlighted a number technology business initiatives, there were also business increases and tax relief cuts to consider.

Share your thoughts with a quick Electronics Weekly poll (Budget 2024: which will most affect your electronics business?).

Budget initiatives

Among the positives, it announced a £20.4 billion in investment for UK R&D, in a bid to drive economic growth. This includes the promise to fully fund the Horizon Europe research programme

There will also be up to £520 million for a Life Sciences Fund, which is designed to “unlock” £1.8 billion from private investment. This includes a Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF), which will start with £70 million in grants

Finally new “R&D investments to power the UK’s national missions”, with regional “innovation accelerators” intended to supporting growth geographically across the country. There will be £40m over five years in a Proof of Concept Fund, to turn pioneering university research into successful companies. And there will £500 million over the next year for the Project Gigabit and the Shared Rural Network initiatives.

Interstingly for the Proof of Concept Fund, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) highlights successful spinouts like Pragmatic Semiconductor. This raised £182 million to help open its first manufacturing facility and create 500 high-skilled jobs, states the department.

Horizon

On the Horizon funding, the DSIT adds:

“The Budget will fully fund the UK’s association with Horizon Europe, providing scientists and innovators access to the world’s largest collaborative funding scheme, with over £80 billion available for cutting-edge projects under the EU scheme. DSIT’s own R&D budget has increased to £13.9 billion, and Core Research funding has also been increased to a record £6.1 billion, bolstering the UK’s leading research base.”

There will also be however, incrases in employers’ National Insurance contributions. And reduced support for investement in the tech-focussed AIM market. And then am increase in the minimum wage, which is good for the employees but at a cost to employers.

Return to capital has been privileged these last few decades, I’m sure we’d agree. So it seems any return to Labour should be considered a balance…

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See also: Spring Budget 2024 – NHS AI, Space Connectivity, Quantum computing