Tag: Treasury

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 22 November 2023.

Tax cuts for working people and British business headlined Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s ‘Autumn Statement for Growth’ today, Wednesday 22 November.

Tax cuts for working people and British business headlined Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s ‘Autumn Statement for Growth’ today, Wednesday 22 November.

Aimed at building a stronger and more resilient economy, the Chancellor set out a plan to unlock growth and productivity by boosting business investment by £20 billion a year, getting more people into work, and cutting tax for 29 million workers across the UK – the biggest tax cut on work since the 1980s.

Welsh Secretary David TC Davies said:

This is a hugely ambitious Autumn Statement which puts more money in the pockets of over a million working people across Wales with cuts to National Insurance and another increase to the National Living Wage.

As we grow the economy, I’m delighted to see substantial direct UK Government investment in Wales. The two new £160 million Investment Zones in north-east and south-east Wales and an ambitious commitment to floating offshore wind will encourage business and create jobs, while £5 million for transport links in Monmouthshire and £500,000 to support the Hay Festival are important investments in those communities.

There will also be an additional £305 million in Barnett Consequentials for the Welsh Government, on top of its record block grant, to spend on devolved responsibilities like health and education.

This all comes on top of £111 million in levelling up funding announced earlier this week seven Welsh projects which will transform local areas and shows that the UK Government is delivering for people across Wales.

With higher revenues resulting from stronger growth than previously projected and the pledge to halve inflation having been met, the government has stabilised the economy through taking sound decisions. As set out by the Prime Minister this week, the stronger outlook means taxes can now be cut in a serious, responsible way.

To that end, Mr Hunt announced that a 2 percentage cut to Employee National Insurance from 12% to 10% will come into effect from January 2024.

Taxes for the self-employed in Wales will also be cut and reformed. From April 2024, Class 4 NICs for the self-employed will be reduced from 9% to 8% and no self-employed person will have to pay Class 2 NICs.

Taken together, this is the largest ever cut to employee and self-employed National Insurance – a UK-wide tax cut of £9 billion per year that amounts to a £324 average annual tax cut for 1.2 million workers in Wales, almost immediately improving living standards for over a million people and rewarding hard-work as the government builds an economy for the future.

Businesses will also benefit from the biggest business tax cut in modern British history. As signalled at Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced permanent Full Expensing: Invest for Less for those investing in IT equipment, plant, and machinery.

Full Expensing: Invest for Less is an effective permanent tax cut of £11 billion a year, boosting business investment by £14 billion across the forecast period and helping to grow the economy. With the tax cut now permanent, the UK will continue to have both the lowest headline corporation tax rate in the G7 and the most generous capital allowances in the OECD group of major advanced economies, such as the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany. Since the introduction of the super deduction – the predecessor to full expensing – in 2021, investment in the UK has grown the fastest in the G7.

To further ensure that work pays, Mr Hunt confirmed that the National Living Wage will increase by nearly 10% to £11.44 an hour from April 2024, the largest ever cash increase. The Chancellor also reinforced the new £2.5 billion Back to Work Plan for those with long-term health conditions, disabilities and difficulties finding employment, which includes tough new sanctions for those who can work but choose not to.

The Chancellor also announced that the government will honour its commitment to the triple lock in full, with the state pension to increase by 8.5% in April in what is the second biggest ever cash increase. Universal Credit and other working age benefits will be boosted by 6.7% in April, in line with September’s inflation figure as is convention.

Further action to help families includes increasing the Local Housing Allowance rate to cover the lowest 30% of rents from April – benefiting 1.6 million households with an average gain of £800 in 2024/25 – and an alcohol duty freeze to 1st August 2024, following common-sense changes of the duty system made possible by Brexit. Measures today take the government’s total support for the cost-of-living between 2022-25 beyond the £100 billion mark, to an average of £3,700 per household.

Many of today’s decisions on tax and spending apply in Wales. As a result of decisions that do not apply UK-wide, the Welsh Government will receive £305 million over the next two years.

Accompanying forecasts by the OBR confirm that today’s measures will make the economy permanently bigger, with growth every year of the forecast period. Borrowing and debt as a share of the economy are lower than in Spring this year and next year, with borrowing also lower on average across the forecast by comparison. They also confirm that inflation is expected to return to target in line with the Prime Minister’s economic priorities.

Tax

With inflation halved and debt forecast to fall, Mr Hunt delivered on the government’s commitment to cut taxes – rewarding and incentivising work as part of its long-term plan to grow the economy.

• The main rate of Employee National Insurance will be cut by 2 percentage points from 12% to 10%, coming into effect from January 2024 – delivering the benefit of a tax cut quickly for 27 million workers.
• The combined rate of income tax and National Insurance for employees paying the basic rate of tax will therefore fall from 32% to 30% – the lowest combined basic rate since the 1980s.
• The rate of Class 4 NICs on all earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 will be cut by 1p, from 9% to 8% from April 2024.
• The weekly Class 2 NICs – the flat rate compulsory charge which is currently £3.45 paid by self-employed people earning more than £12,570 – will effectively be abolished, with no-one required to pay from April 2024. Access to contributory benefits will be maintained and those currently paying voluntarily will still be able to do so at the same rate.
• The cuts to Class 4 and Class 2 together amount to a tax cut of £350 a year for the average self-employed person on £28,200, with around 2 million individuals to benefit.

Business

Measures to back British businesses big and small will remove barriers to investment and help to bridge the productivity gap between the UK and its G7 peers – unlocking £20 billion extra business investment per year over the next decade.

• Permanent Full Expensing will create the certainty that businesses need to confidently invest for less. A company can now permanently claim 100% capital allowances on qualifying main rate plant and machinery investments, meaning that for every pound invested its taxes are cut by up to 25p.
• Pension reforms, including through establishing a new Growth Fund within the British Business Bank, will help unlock an extra £75 billion of financing for high-growth companies by 2030 while providing an extra £1,000 a year in retirement for the average earner saving from 18.
• SMEs will be supported with tougher regulation on late payers to improve prompt payments and continued funding for Help to Grow. The UK government will also work with the Welsh Government to explore the expansion of the Made Smarter Adoption programme – which helps manufacturing SMEs to reduce emissions and drive productivity – in Wales from 2026/27.
• The existing R&D Expenditure Credit and Small and Medium Enterprise Scheme will be merged from April 2024, simplifying the system and boosting innovation in the UK.
• The rate at which loss-making companies are taxed within the merged scheme will be reduced from 25% to 19%, and the threshold for additional support for R&D intensive loss-making SMEs will be lowered to 30%, benefiting a further 5,000 SMEs.
• The Climate Change Agreement Scheme will be extended, giving energy intensive businesses like steel, ceramics and breweries around £300 million of tax relief every year until 2033 to encourage investment in energy efficiency and support the Net Zero transition.

Work and welfare reform

Mr Hunt set out steps to reward work, help make work pay, and reform welfare in recognition of the need to expand the workforce and get those out of work back into work to deliver growth. The OBR expect that the measures announced at Autumn Statement will support a further 78,000 people into work by 2028-29, on top of the 110,000 resulting from action taken at Spring Budget.

• From 1 April 2024, the National Living Wage will increase by 9.8% to £11.44 an hour for eligible workers. For the first time this will include 21- and 22-year-olds. This represents an increase of over £1,800 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the NLW and is expected to benefit 130,000 low paid workers in Wales.
• The government will also substantially increase the National Minimum Wage rates for young people and apprentices: for people aged 18-20 by 14.8% to £8.60 an hour, for 16-17 year olds and apprentices by 21.2% to £6.40 an hour.
• The government is reforming the Work Capability Assessment, to ensure that people who can work are supported to do so via the welfare system. Changes to the activities and descriptors will better reflect the greater flexibility and reasonable adjustments now available in the world of work, preventing some individuals from being deemed not fit for work and ensuring they will be better supported into employment.
• As part of the Back to Work Plan, the government is extending and expanding the Restart scheme until June 2026 – providing tailored, intensive support such as coaching and CV and interview skills for those who have been on Universal Credit for more than six months rather than nine. An expansion to the flagship Universal Support programme will also help place and support more people with disabilities and from vulnerable groups into existing vacancies. Strengthened sanctions will apply in Wales.
• A new voluntary Occupational Health standard providing guidance on workplace health and disability will be developed, alongside creating a new digital marketplace to support smaller Welsh businesses procure Occupational Health services.

Infrastructure and levelling up

The Chancellor unveiled a raft of supply-side measures and funding packages to benefit businesses and local communities across Wales.

• £4.5 billion of funding for British manufacturers in the high-growth industries of the future, including £960 million earmarked for the Green Industries Growth Accelerator to support clean energy.
• Two new Investment Zones will be established in Cardiff & Newport and Wrexham & Flintshire, to boost economic growth across Wales. The extension of the Investment Zones and Freeport programmes in England will be replicated in Wales, subject to Welsh Government agreement. The governments will also work together to deliver a share of the funding from a flexible £150 million Investment Opportunity Fund, to support the securing of specific business investment opportunities.
• The government has published its full response to the Winser review and Connections Action Plan, which will cut grid access times for larger projects by half, halve the time to build major grid upgrades and offer up to £10,000 off electricity bills over 10 years for those living closest to new transmission infrastructure.
• The government is working with The Crown Estate to bring forward additional floating wind in the Celtic Sea through the 2030s, with the potential to deliver £20 billion of direct investment from deployment in the area.
• To prioritise those who want to invest in the UK’s future, the government has accepted in principle the headline recommendations of Lord Harrington’s review into increasing foreign direct investment. This includes additional resource for the Office for Investment, allowing it to deepen its world-class concierge offer to strategically important investors.
• The life sciences will also be supported as one of the Chancellor’s key-growth sectors, with £20 million to speed up the development of new dementia treatments coming as part of the government’s full response to the O’Shaughnessy Review of commercial clinical trials in the UK.
• The government will ensure greater connectivity for Wales, through £1 billion to fund the electrification of the North Wales Main Line.
• £5.2m of funding for transport in Monmouthshire will deliver significant improvements to the local bus network, walkways, cycleways and shared use paths within Chepstow.
• £800,000 of funding for the Space Technology Test Centre in North Wales, providing a flight test range for rocket-powered test vehicles, near-space scientific flights, microgravity research and trials of re-entry vehicles and payload recovery systems.
• The government is also providing £500,000 to support the well-loved Hay Festival in Wales.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 21 November 2023.

Biggest ever increase to the National Living Wage, worth over £1,800 a year for a full-time worker, fulfils manifesto pledge to end low pay.

• Biggest ever increase to the National Living Wage, worth over £1,800 a year for a full-time worker, fulfils manifesto pledge to end low pay.
• Since 2010 the National Living Wage will have doubled in cash terms from around £10,500 to nearly £21,000 a year for a full-time worker.
• For the first time, 21-year-olds on the National Living Wage will always earn two-thirds of average earnings.

The Chancellor will deliver a pay rise of more than £1,800 a year for a full-time worker, as he confirms that the National Living Wage will increase by over a pound an hour from April.

The almost 10% pay boost, from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour, is the biggest cash increase in the National Living Wage in more than a decade and fulfils the government’s manifesto pledge to end low pay for those on the National Living Wage.

Eligibility for the National Living Wage will also be extended by reducing the age threshold to 21-year-olds for the first time.  A 21-year-old will get a 12.4% increase, from £10.18 this year to £11.44 next year, worth almost £2,300 a year for a full-time worker.

National Minimum wage rates for younger workers will also increase. 18-20-year-olds will also get a wage boost to £8.60 per hour – a £1.11 hourly pay bump.

The Department for Business and Trade estimate 2.7 million workers will directly benefit from the 2024 National Living Wage increase.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said:

Next April all full-time workers on the National Living Wage will get a pay rise of over £1,800 a year. That will end low pay in this country, delivering on our manifesto promise.

The National Living Wage has helped halve the number of people on low pay since 2010, making sure work always pays.

The minimum hourly wage for an apprentice is boosted next year, with an 18-year-old apprentice in an industry like construction seeing their minimum hourly pay increase by over 20%, going from £5.28 to £6.40 an hour.

The National Living Wage was introduced in 2016 and currently sets the minimum hourly pay a person over the age of 23 earns when working. The new rate will now apply to 21- and 22-year-olds, and means that the government has met its ambitious target of lifting the National Living Wage to two-thirds of median earnings by 2024, ending low hourly pay for those on the National Living Wage.

Since 2010, the proportion of workers on low hourly pay has more than halved from 21.3% to 8.9%, supported by increases to the National Living Wage. Personal tax thresholds have been doubled, meaning a working person can now earn £1,000 a month tax-free for the first time.

Getting more people into work and ensuring work pays is a priority for the government. The Chancellor will set out further measures in tomorrow’s Autumn Statement.

Notes to editors

• The OECD defines low pay as those earning less than two-thirds of average earnings.
• The National Minimum Wage rate for those aged 22+ was £5.80 from 1 October 2009 to 31st September 2010 . A worker working full-time would have received around £10,500 a year gross, whereas it will be almost £21,500 for a NLW worker from April 2024.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 21 November 2023.

The Chancellor has announced a £320 million plan to drive innovation and unlock the first tranche of investment from his Mansion House Reforms.

• New investment vehicles tailored to the needs of pension schemes to support investment into the UK’s most promising high-growth companies.
• Latest step in delivering the Chancellor’s Mansion House Reforms unlocking £75 billion
• Expected to provide an extra £1,000 a year for the average earner that starts saving from 18

The Chancellor has announced a £320 million plan to drive innovation and unlock the first tranche of investment from his Mansion House Reforms.

A raft of measures – which are expected to provide an extra £1,000 for people’s pension pots every year – will help pension funds invest in high growth, innovative companies to deliver for savers and grow the economy.

The government is supporting new investment vehicles tailored to the needs of pension schemes, allowing investment into the UK’s innovative companies.

£250 million will be committed to two successful bidders under the Long-term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) initiative, subject to contract. This will provide over a billion pounds of investment from pension funds and other sources into UK science and technology companies.

To complement private investment vehicles, a new Growth Fund will be established within the British Business Bank. The Growth Fund will draw on the BBB’s strong track record and a permanent capital base of over £7 billion to give pension schemes access to opportunities in the UK’s most promising businesses.  This has been welcomed by 8 pension schemes and fund managers as a potentially valuable addition to the market.

Building on the recent BVCA Venture Capital Investment Compact, the package also includes measures to further strengthen the UK’s renowned venture capital industry. A new Venture Capital Fellowship scheme will support the next generation of world-leading investors in our VC funds, similar to the successful US Kauffman Fellowship.

The Chancellor, Jeremy 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 Autumn Statement will be a huge step towards delivering our Mansion House Reforms and unleashing the full potential of our pensions industry.

It 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 by the independent review of spinouts.

The Chancellor is to inject £20 million to foster more ‘spin-out’ companies, firms created using research done in universities. He is also providing at least £50m additional funding for the British Business Bank’s successful ‘Future Fund: Breakthrough’ programme – that will provide direct investment to support these innovative companies to scale up.

Spin-out companies raised £5.3 billion in investment in 2021-22 alone. Today’s announcements are designed to increase investment for the future and help ensure researchers in our world-leading universities have the tools they need to start, scale, and grow innovative new businesses in the UK.

The independent review – led by Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Andrew Williamson, Managing Partner of Cambridge Innovation Capital – 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.

In the past, many spin-outs deals were created from scratch, which is both inefficient and sometimes fails to learn the lessons from previous success stories. Today’s recommendations aim to speed up the process and build on TenU’s University Spin-out Investment Terms (USIT) Guide by recommending 10-25% university equity for life sciences spinouts, and 10% or less for less IP-intensive sectors, common in software.

The Chancellor has accepted all the recommendations and will set out his full response as part of the Autumn Statement tomorrow.

This move will help deliver the Prime Minister’s pledge to grow the economy by supporting our world-leading university research institutions, which generate around £10 billion a year for the economy.

Further information

Supportive statements for the Independent Review of Spin-outs

• Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said:

“Innovative, globally competitive businesses like Oxford Nanopore are making a huge contribution to our economy.

“It’s critical that we harness this potential and give universities the tools they need to translate cutting edge research into exciting UK businesses that start and grow in the UK.”

• Science and Technology Secretary, Michelle Donelan, said:

“Turning new ideas and innovations into blossoming businesses is the bedrock of a vibrant economy and our £20m investment will drive more successful UK spinout companies like Oxford Nanopore and Darktrace, ensuring world-class research translates into world-leading industries.

“At the same time, we need clear rules on the stakes held by universities which offer world class facilities and expertise to get those companies off the ground, so we can back future generations of innovators, in turn creating more local jobs and growing our economy.”

• Co-leads for the independent review Professor Irene Tracey CBE, FRS, FMedSci, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and Dr Andrew Williamson, Chair of the Venture Capital Committee at the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) and Managing Partner of Cambridge Innovation Capital, said:

“The UK’s world-class university sector is a crucial driver of economic growth and innovation. Over the past eight months, we have engaged extensively with the major stakeholders in the UK’s university spin-out ecosystem. Today’s publication of our review and its recommendations are the culmination of this extensive work. We propose a set of spin-out terms and practices designed to foster a more collaborative and sharing environment among academia, entrepreneurship, and investment.

“Our hope is that this will increase the number of spin-outs, reduce the time to negotiate licenses, and increase the spin-out’s success rate. It was a privilege to contribute to this report and we are extremely grateful to our colleagues for their willingness to engage in the review, and especially the advisory board. Across diverse sectors, including AI, quantum computing, advanced therapeutics, diagnostics, and climate tech, university spin-outs across the UK are rapidly generating economic growth, societal impact, and fulfilling career opportunities for the next generation.”

• Responding to the recommendations set out in the Independent Review of Spin-outs Anne Lane, CEO of UCL Business (UCLB), said:

“For 30 years, UCLB has created successful spinout businesses from UCL’s ground-breaking research, which have raised £2.75 billion investment in the last 5 years alone.  As well as creating jobs and economic impact, these spinouts scale up solutions to complex societal challenges, from reducing carbon emissions to therapies for rare hereditary diseases.

“The recommendations published in this review will help universities harmonise the creation of spinouts. We look forward to working even closer with fellow universities, government, and the investment community to ensure a healthy and sustained flow of investment back into academic research whilst supporting the emerging world-changing businesses of the next 30 years.”

• Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, said:

“I very much welcome the findings and recommendations of this Review and believe wholeheartedly in the untapped potential for innovation and entrepreneurship within our universities across the UK. Our institutions are at the forefront of the groundbreaking R&D which can drive productivity and economic growth across the country, and to be globally competitive we must ensure we are creating a framework which is investor-friendly, founder-friendly, nurtures university spinouts and unleashes this untapped potential.

“Universities like mine are developing the technologies needed to fuel the UK’s economy and tackle the greatest challenges facing the world, so it is very welcome to see the UK Government recognise the integral role our institutions can play in facilitating the creation of new ventures to bring new ideas and breakthrough innovations to market. As a sector we look forward to working together with the Government in the months ahead to deliver the ambitions set out in the Review.”

• Michael Moore, Chief Executive, British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association said:

“The independent university spin-out review is a hugely welcome statement of intent. Private capital has an important role to play by bringing both investment and expertise together to transform the world class research in UK universities into world class businesses. The recommendations in this review can help to generate ways to get more capital working together with the best ideas to achieve that.”

• Julia Hawkins, Partner at LocalGlobe said:

“Turning the UK’s world-leading science and innovation into viable global businesses takes so much more than just IP and investment. We applaud the recognition in this review that founders benefit from the support of experienced investors, who are also seasoned company builders. At Phoenix Court we co-founded the Newton Fellows program to help train the next generation of investors and entrepreneurs, and we especially welcome spinout founders and investors. We are also working with interns from PhD/Postdoc programs who are looking to gain experience of the investment and entrepreneurship worlds, and we want to do more in this area. And we have long argued that founders should not give up too much equity in their businesses and are delighted to have joined the TenU working group to recommend appropriate terms to help spinouts achieve market competitive terms that both incentivise and reward.”

• Steve Bates OBE, CEO of the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA), said:

“Spin-outs are the lifeblood of life science innovation ecosystem. This report shows that the UK university spin-out process is getting simpler, faster, and more repeatable. This is creating a virtuous circle of increased deal flow, more life science companies and investor confidence in the UK.

“People moving easily both ways between academia and industry is key to successful research translation. This report demonstrates practically just how highly-connected the UK’s unique life science innovation ecosystem is.  It’s because of this collaboration that I’m confident the report’s recommendations will be delivered.”

• Tim Bradshaw, CEO of the Russell Group, said:

“We’re pleased this review highlights the enormous value spin-outs have added to the UK economy and demonstrates the vital role universities play in commercialising research and enabling new enterprises across a range of industries to flourish.

“These businesses simply would not exist without the resource, skills, and investment of our world-leading universities as well as support from the investor community and Government.

“In turn, university spin outs have created thousands of high value jobs right across the country, and we are eager to do even more.

“We look forward to working closely with the Government and investors to build on the momentum from this review to ensure we can not only sustain but hopefully grow the already thriving UK spin-out eco-system.”

• Vivienne Stern, CEO of Universities UK, said:

“We welcome this review’s recognition of the positive impact and important role that university spin outs have on driving growth and supporting the national and local economy. We support the ambitions of the review for universities, investors and Government to come together and work collaboratively to maximise opportunities for university spinout activity. University spin outs create thousands of jobs across the UK and will play an important role in driving the economic growth and local regeneration that the country needs.”

British Business Bank

• The British Business Bank (BBB) has engaged widely with the market to explore the case for government to play a greater role in establishing investment vehicles to allow pension schemes to invest quickly and effectively in UK unlisted growth companies, building on the skills and expertise of the BBB’s commercial arm.
• The organisations, listed below, have confirmed that they are supportive of the government’s ambitions to encourage additional institutional investment into UK venture and growth assets, and that a government established vehicle run by the BBB could be a valuable addition to the market, alongside other vehicles that already exist or are in development.
• They have also confirmed their availability for continued engagement with the BBB to help design this vehicle to meet schemes’ needs, alongside the wider work of government and the market to establish suitable vehicles.
• Aviva, L&G, M&G, Smart Pension, Aegon, Phoenix, AON and USS

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 20 November 2023.

The government has today (20 November) launched England’s third Investment Zone in West Yorkshire focussed on Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds, which will help to create more than 2,500 new jobs across the region over the next five years, and could unlock £220 million in investment.

• West Yorkshire’s new Investment Zone focused on Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds could create more than 2,500 new jobs over five years across the region and unlock over £220 million of investment.
• Initial investment from a health tech company that supports patients to minimize hair loss during chemotherapy.
• Chancellor to extend the programme of Investment Zones from five to 10 years and double the envelope of funding and tax reliefs on offer.

The Chancellor is also confirming the Investment Zones programme in England will be extended from five to 10 years, with the envelope of government funding and tax reliefs on offer now doubled to £160 million.

Growing the economy and making the long-term decisions to deliver the change the country needs is a priority for the Prime Minister. The announcements today are part of wider plans expected in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement this week where he will reveal reforms to reignite growth by unlocking more private investment and getting people back into work.

West Yorkshire will host one of 12 Investment Zones across the UK. It’s based around the region’s universities in Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield and the cluster of life sciences businesses thriving in the area.

This includes the pioneering health tech company, Paxman Scalp Cooling, which supports patients to minimise hair loss during chemotherapy by manufacturing specialist hair caps. It is investing £5 million to bring their innovative health tech products to global markets and alongside it, the digital healthcare company Dedalus is investing £21 million to deliver digital and diagnostic tools for the NHS.

As a result of the Investment Zone, revamped sites specialising in health tech and digital will open up around West Yorkshire, unlocking over 2,500 jobs and over £220 million of investment across the region over the next five years.

This can be used flexibly between spending on interventions such as skills, research and development and local infrastructure, dependent on local need, and tax incentives such as 100% Stamp Duty Land Tax relief, an enhanced structures and buildings allowance at a rate of 10% per annum, an enhanced 100% first-year capital allowance, employer National Insurance Contributions relief, and 100% business rates relief.

Alongside this, the window to claim Freeport tax reliefs in England will be extended from five to ten years until September 2031, providing greater certainty to businesses looking to invest, delivering growth and jobs, and levelling up the economy.

The UK Government will work with the Scottish and Welsh governments with the intention of delivering the same extension to Investment Zones and Freeports in Scotland and Wales and will continue to work with stakeholders on how best to support investment in Northern Ireland.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said:

“We are changing our country for the long term, driving economic growth across all corners of the UK.

“It will mean thousands more jobs in the exciting industries of the future backed up by better infrastructure, and communities to be proud of.”

The Chancellor launched West Yorkshire’s Investment Zone alongside West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin at Paxman Cooling where they met executives and discussed the future growth of the company.

West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin said:

“We know that devolution is working for West Yorkshire and this new investment zone is further recognition of that from the government.

“Home to NHS England, our region’s digital and health tech businesses are driving forward innovation and transforming the lives of patients world-wide.

“This investment is a massive vote of confidence in our top-tier universities and talented graduates and will help our mission to build a stronger, brighter region that works for all.”

The West Yorkshire Life Sciences Investment Zone will benefit from a range of interventions which include skills training and business support to encourage more business investment. The plan will boost innovation in the area’s thriving healthcare sector and create a talent pipeline at the forefront of technological advances.

Richard Paxman OBE, CEO of Paxman Scalp Cooling, said:

“This news is incredibly exciting for the region and our health tech sector, and will only further attract investment in a sector that changes lives and makes a real impact commercially and socially.

“Paxman has invested significantly in the region over the past 5 years, attracting over £10 million of foreign direct investment. Now, we are more committed than ever before in increasing our presence and investment in Huddersfield – providing further employment growth and delivering additional investment in research and development.”

Daryll Goodall, Managing Director UK and Ireland at Dedalus, said:

“We are delighted to be a key part of the West Yorkshire Investment Zone. As a Global Healthcare company, Dedalus work closely with local Universities and Hospital Trusts in the West Yorkshire area to help bring new products from Europe to the UK healthcare market, and using our team in Leeds we develop products specifically for the UK.

“We are excited about the future, having the opportunity to implement our ORBIS electronic patient record (EPR) in the UK, and continuing to develop local healthcare applications like OneResponse, a mobile EPR for ambulance services in the UK, and PatientAide, a mobile app for clinicians providing them with access to key services and patient information.”

John Naybour, CEO of Eventum Orthopaedics, said:

“With £4.5 million raised so far, including investment from the Northern Powerhouse, Eventum is celebrating the successful launch of Quadsense, a groundbreaking product developed with invaluable support from the Universities of Leeds and Bradford.

“Recognized as the new frontier in total knee surgery at the American Association of Knee and Hip Surgeons, Quadsense has attracted huge interest in the global orthopaedic community, and has set the benchmark for our second innovative product which we are developing in collaboration with Leeds Beckett University.”

Businesses set to benefit from the investment zone include health tech companies like Eventum Orthopaedics, which works to improves patients’ experience of knee surgeries and is setting up 5 major orthopaedic hospitals in the UK, as they look to expand to markets in the US and New Zealand.

The government will continue to work with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and local authorities to co-develop the plans for their Life Sciences Investment Zone, including agreeing specific interventions to drive long-term growth, ahead of final confirmation of plans.

With over 600 life sciences companies, 250 MedTech firms and over 90 digital health enterprises, West Yorkshire is a place where ideas come to fruition and innovative products and solutions are tested, embedded and scaled locally and internationally.

Building on this strength, the region’s Investment Zone includes four universities and is part of the government’s vision to drive growth in the sectors of the future including advanced manufacturing, green industries, digital and technology.

At Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced eight places in England as eligible to host an Investment Zone. Each was invited to identify an Investment Zone that offered an imaginative partnership between local government and a university or research institute in a way that catalyses emerging innovation clusters.

Five more Investment Zones are still to be announced in England – ensuring that there are engines for growth and opportunities for talented people across the country.

Today’s news follows the first Advanced Manufacturing Investment Zone in South Yorkshire, announced in July, which has backing from Boeing and partners with an investment worth over £80 million. Liverpool City Region was also confirmed as being England’s second Investment Zone, focussed on Life Sciences.

There will also be two Investment Zones in Scotland, in the Glasgow City Region and the North East of Scotland. Work is ongoing between Scottish Government and the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities to commence the development of these Investment Zones in Scotland jointly with local partners.

The government is also working in partnership with the Welsh Government to deliver the Investment Zone programme in Wales and will continue to work with stakeholders on how best to deliver the benefits in Northern Ireland.

Further information

Freeports

• 8 successful English Freeports locations were announced at Spring Budget 2021. 23 of 24 English Freeport tax sites have now been designated, with the majority of tax sites being designated in late 2021 and early 2022.
• Earlier this year, the government announced two Green Freeports in Scotland and two Freeports in Wales. We are continuing to engage stakeholders about how to bring the benefits of the Investment Zones and Freeports programmes to Northern Ireland.
• The window to claim Freeport tax reliefs will be extended for English Freeports, is conditional on agreement of delivery plans with each Freeport.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 18 November 2023.

The Chancellor will set out the case for reform across public services to unlock productivity.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 17 November 2023.

The government has today announced £4.5 billion in funding for British manufacturing to increase investment in eight sectors across the UK. The funding will be available from 2025 for five years, providing industry with longer term certainty about their investments.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 10 November 2023.

The UK has today, 10 November 2023, agreed an historic joint statement with 48 countries to help combat criminals using crypto-assets to evade and avoid billions in missing tax.

• UK leads on first of its kind global commitment to combat offshore crypto tax evasion
• Minister Victoria Atkins praises international cooperation to close gap in global tax system and potentially recoup hundreds of millions of pounds in lost revenue
• landmark agreement follows UK leadership on historic G20/OECD global tax deal agreed in 2021, that clamps down on corporate tax avoidance and will ensure the right tax is paid in the right place

The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), spearheaded by the UK, is the OECD’s latest flagship tax transparency standard. It will mean crypto platforms will need to start sharing taxpayer information with tax authorities, which currently they do not do, ensuring these authorities can exchange information to enforce tax compliance. The CARF is expected to take effect in time for exchanges with other countries to start from 2027.

Today’s milestone follows 2021’s two pillar global tax agreement, which aims to ensure that the right tax is paid by businesses where they operate and cracks down on large multinational enterprises avoiding tax through a 15% global minimum rate.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Victoria Atkins, said:

“I am proud that the UK is once again demonstrating leadership on tackling global tax evasion, helping to secure the revenue that’s essential for the public services we all use.

“Today we are sending out a strong message that we will not allow criminals to use crypto to avoid paying their fair share.”

The CARF will build on the existing system tax authorities use to share information with each other, called the Common Reporting Standard. This has already been hugely successful in tackling offshore tax evasion, with almost £100 billion in additional tax revenue recovered from traditional financial assets since its inception in 2014.

The new framework announced today will be essential to counter the increasing level of tax avoidance brought about by the rapid growth of the global crypto market, with some estimates suggesting that tax non-compliance on crypto-asset holdings could range from as high as 55% to 95%.

The UK, which stands to potentially recoup hundreds of millions of pounds as a result of the CARF’s implementation, used its position as a global leader in tax transparency to scope, negotiate and finalise provisions for CARF while galvanising international support.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 8 November 2023.

Up to £15 million of reallocated funding made available in Northern Ireland to respond to flooding – supporting affected businesses and aiding clean-up costs.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 27 October 2023.

The landmark change will mean more criminal proceeds are recovered.

• New standards for confiscating proceeds of crime confirmed today to ensure crime does not pay.
• Landmark change requires countries to have non-conviction confiscation powers already in use in the UK.
• More criminal proceeds to be recovered as implementation of higher minimum standards enable improved cross border cooperation.

International action on confiscating the proceeds of crime is to be toughened after a global standard setter today, 27 October, unveiled new rules that represent a major step forward in the fight against economic crime.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as the global Anti-Money Laundering standard setter has announced it is adopting a new set of strengthened standards for seizure and confiscation, as a two-year project co-led by the UK reached its conclusion.

Law enforcement needs a suite of tools to disrupt and disincentivise criminals and strip them of their ill-gotten gains. Over 200 countries worldwide are signed up to the new wide-ranging standards, which for the first time include requirements for non-conviction based confiscation – a useful alternative or supplement to criminal proceedings and an already well used route in the UK to disrupt crime.

The UK’s domestic confiscation powers have been expanded in recent years, leading to the record recovery of almost £340m in 2022 to 2023 – a 75% increase compared to £194m in 2017 to 2018. Of this, £160.1 million was recovered using the UK’s non-conviction based powers.

Treasury Lords Minister Baroness Penn said:

“These new requirements for countries around the world make a difference here at home too – helping disrupt economic crime even when it crosses borders.

“Britain has been consistently driving higher standards in recovering proceeds of crime at the international table and the news today is both long overdue and hugely welcome.”

Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said:

”Criminals shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. Stripping them of their profits sends a clear signal that we will not tolerate their actions.

“The new standards set by the Financial Action Task Force are an important step in the right direction and send a powerful message.

“We will continue working with the global community to proactively target criminals, take their dirty money and use it for the public good.”

Further information

• The full text of the changes is to be published by the Financial Action Task Force in the coming months. The FATF was set up by the G7 in 1989 to tackle dirty money from drug trafficking. Its mandate has since expanded to look at illicit financial flows across different crime types.
• The Government’s second Economic Crime Plan committed to “Strengthen[ing] international asset recovery standards to improve cross-border asset recovery outcomes”. The updated standards deliver on this commitment.
• Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) £339.1 million of assets were recovered from Confiscation, Forfeiture, and Civil Recovery Orders in the financial year 2022 to 2023. This represents another high year of asset recovery and is a 75% increase compared to £193.8 million in 2017 to 2018.
• Of this, £160.1 million was recovered using the UK’s non-conviction based powers – £97.2 million was recovered through Forfeiture Order receipts; and £62.9 million was recovered through Civil Recovery Order Receipts, the highest value ever recorded, driven by a £53.9m order obtained by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 12 October 2023.

The Chancellor will attend key multilateral meetings, as well as hold talks with economic partners from around the world.

• Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is in Marrakech, Morocco, for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Annual Meetings
• Chancellor will attend key multilateral meetings, as well as hold talks with economic partners from around the world
• Chancellor to reaffirm UK’s commitment to fiscal responsibility ahead of Autumn Statement next month

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is in Marrakech, Morocco, today and tomorrow (Thursday 12 and Friday 13 October) for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Annual Meetings. He will discuss global economic issues and how to ensure international financial institutions are delivering for all member states, including the most vulnerable, as well as showcase the UK’s leadership on international development.

The Chancellor will also discuss the UK’s economic strategy, highlighting the need to fight inflation and make fiscally responsible decisions. He will reiterate Britain’s backing of international humanitarian causes such as Morocco’s earthquake relief effort, in addition to support for Ukraine following Russia’s illegal invasion and for Israel in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said:

“I’m in Marrakech to discuss the global fight against inflation, and how we are putting Britain back on the path to growth.

“It is because of our solid economic foundation at home that we can support our friends around the world. I am full of admiration for the Moroccan people’s resilience following the terrible earthquake in September, and want to reiterate Britain’s backing to support the victims.”

Also in attendance at this year’s IMF Annual Meetings are Andrew Mitchell, Minister for Development and Africa at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England.

The UK remains committed to supporting Morocco following the devastating earthquake in September, and has allocated a funding package worth up to £10m in response to this and the floods in Libya. A British search and rescue team, as well as a medical assessment team, were also deployed in the days immediately after the natural disaster to support the Moroccan authorities in the affected areas.

The meetings are one of the IMF’s twice-yearly centre pieces for international economic policy. This year’s are the first set to be held outside of Washington D.C. since 2018, when they took place in Bali, Indonesia. They are also the first IMF Annuals held in Africa since 1973, which were in Nairobi, Kenya.