杰里米·亨特，财政大臣. 见文章末尾的照片来源
The Greater Manchester mayoral region was the beneficiary of a number of top Budget announcements in last week’s Spring Budget by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
We’ve highlighted some key announcements and how they affect the tech sector in Greater Manchester and the North West as a whole.
更多的权力下放资金
被称为“开拓者”交易, Mayor Andy Burham was given greater spending powers as part of the region’s devolution agreement, 这将成为其他地区未来权力下放的蓝图. He will be given more funding and spending powers over housing, transport, employment and skills. It also means that the region will be given a single pot of money and won’t have to apply for individual pots of funding from Whitehall, 赋予GMCA决定资金去向的权力.
凯蒂·加拉格尔, 十大网博靠谱平台数字总经理, said: “We welcome the news around Trailblazer powers for Combined Authorities in Greater Manchester. More local control of resources and responsibilities for skills funding presents a huge opportunity to harness the potential of learners and better align skills and talent to the needs of employers in growing and fast-moving sectors like tech.
“Given how important tech is to the future of the economy and the potential impact on regional economies, whatever mechanism is used to devolve funding into the regions it must make provision for expert and specialist support from regional tech clusters who understand the maturity of their clusters and where there are gaps that need funded interventions.”
人工智能与量子
The Chancellor also announced an annual £1m prize for the most ground-breaking research into Artificial Intelligence. 该奖项以“Baby”命名。, 世界上第一台存储程序计算机, 于1948年在十大网博靠谱平台大学建成.
On top of this, the National Quantum Strategy is designed to direct £2.在10年内投资50亿美元来真正推动R&量子技术在英国的应用. The Chancellor also announced £900m to set up an AI research resource and develop an "exascale" supercomputer.
投资区域
政府承诺为投资区提供资金, an idea which was refined by the current Chancellor at his Autumn Statement and now describes ‘12 high-potential knowledge-intensive growth clusters across the UK’.
苏格兰将有四个, Wales and Northern Ireland; with eight in England, 包括大十大网博靠谱平台.
Each English investment zone ‘’will have access to interventions worth £80m’’ and will be tasked with driving growth of at least one of green industries; digital technologies; life sciences; creative industries and advanced manufacturing. The funding will be spent on skills, infrastructure, tax relief and business rates reduction.
时间表尚未最终确定, though the Government is keen to agree the first proposals by the summer and all Investment Zone proposals agreed by the end of the financial year, 预计资金将从2024年4月开始.
凯蒂说, “Today’s announcement around 投资区域 has the potential to better enable collaboration between tech firms, 行业和学术合作伙伴. We hope the design of these programmes will support innovative SMEs to collaborate and accelerate R&D.”
R&D税收抵免
在秋季财政报告中，财政大臣宣布削减R&D科技创业公司使用的税收抵免. 从那时起, 该行业呼吁扭转这一局面, 因为这会对科技行业产生负面影响, 特别是对于处于早期阶段和研究密集型的初创公司. A survey by COADEC found that startups expected to lose 30-40% of what they currently receive.
在他的演讲中，财政大臣部分地扭转了R的减少&D tax credits by making provision for an enhanced credit for firms spending over 40% on R&D能够获得27%的减免. There is a further relief for some firms in Life sciences and creative industries of 34% - 39%.
凯蒂说, “The tech industry as a whole was hoping for more than a partial reversal of the previous reduction of R&D tax credits incentives to encourage SME innovation in a difficult economic climate. It’s of vital importance to allow early-stage startups and innovators to flourish and grow their companies.”
总之……
同时我们欢迎更多的资金投向科技行业, 特别是在大十大网博靠谱平台, we would urge both the Chancellor and Manchester’s Mayor to ensure that funding and initiatives will support innovative SMEs and early stage startups who underpin our regional tech economy.
我们希望看到一个真正的升级为西北地区, 包括高质量, 为我们的业务提供相关和集中的支持, 尤其是早期创业领域. High quality jobs in tech and digital can support social mobility but skills initiatives and pathways need to be more cohesive for both learners and employers. Investment in skills needs to be far more joined up and scaled to get the volume and quality of talent we need to grow the tech industry.
We look forward to working closely with the relevant bodies to support grassroots innovation and grow our important tech economy.
