A quick note on Science in the #SpringBudget – lots of talk, no (constructive) action
The Chancellor backtracked on tax credits for overseas R&D. In Autumn budget, he said that govt would ‘refocus the reliefs towards #innovation in the UK’, now he plans to legislate so that overseas R&D spend can still qualify for tax relief
In Autumn, overseas R&D spend was “unfair on British taxpayers” and out of step with other countries, what has changed since then?
Perhaps one reason might be the fact the government is lagging behind its (low) 2027 target of 2.4% of GDP spend on R&D. Sunak blamed the private sector, for “lagging significantly” in terms of their spending. What is he going to do to address this? He did not say. )
The key will be what he will do with R&D tax credits, but that is delayed to the autumn. It isn’t just about money though, the UK has problems across the #innovation ecosystem, from Universities through to support for innovative start-ups.
Indeed, a lot of the announcements on tax credits were re-announcements, the extension of R&D credits to cover cloud and data were announced last year.
Labour want to harness the power of #science and #tech to improve our lives, and unleash Britain’s innovation
labourlist.org/…/science-and-tech-can-improve-our-lives-labour-will-unleash-british-innovation