The chancellor has announced a £320m plan to drive innovation and unlock the first tranche from his Mansion House reforms.
The measures from the reforms are expected to provide an extra £1,000 for people’s pension pots every year.
Jeremy Hunt’s Mansion House speech on 10 July included a “bumper package” of pension papers and consultations.
The Treasury said £250m will be committed to two successful bidders under the Long-term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) initiative.
This initiative works with the industry to establish new funds to invest in science and tech companies and “provide over a billion pounds of investment from pension funds and other sources into UK science and technology companies.”
Also, a new growth fund will be created within the British Business Bank (BBB) and will access “the best investment opportunities in the UK’s most promising businesses” which has received support from both pension schemes and fund managers.
Hunt said: “Innovation is the key to our future success as a nation and its vital that we do all we can to help companies start, scale and grow in the UK.
“Tomorrow’s (22 November) Autumn Statement will be a huge step towards delivering our Mansion House Reforms and unleashing the full potential of our pensions industry.”
The package also includes measures to support the UK’s venture capital industry. The new Venture Capital Fellowship scheme “will support the next generation of world-leading investors in our [UK] renowned VC funds”.
This comes as the chancellor is convening representatives from several universities and investors at University College London (UCL) East where they will endorse a new set of “best-practice policies” that are recommended in a separate review.
In 2021-22 £5.3bn was raised in investment from spin-out companies from research done at universities.
The independent review led by Oxford University vice-chancellor Irene Tracey and Cambridge Innovation Capital managing partner Andrew Williamson recommends innovation-friendly policies that universities and investors should adopt to make the UK the best place in the world to start a spin out company.
The chancellor has accepted all the recommendations and will set out his full response as part of the Autumn Statement tomorrow.
