Statement made by , Exchequer Secretary to
the Treasury
The Chancellor is announcing new measures to drive innovation and
to help pension funds and other investors invest in high-growth
businesses.
This includes new vehicles tailored to the needs of pension funds
to help them invest the capital unlocked through the Mansion
House Compact. The government will provide £250m to support
successful bidders under the Long-term Investment for Technology
and Science (LIFTS) initiative, subject to contract, and is
confirming plans to launch a new Growth Fund within the British
Business Bank to give pension funds access to investment
opportunities in the UK’s most promising businesses.
In addition, the Chancellor is announcing new measures to support
innovative businesses to access the finance they need to start
and scale up. These include:
- At least £50m additional funding for the British Business
Bank’s successful ‘Future Fund: Breakthrough’ programme – that
will provide direct investment to support the UK’s promising
pipeline of R&D-intensive firms
- A Venture Capital Fellowship scheme to support the next
generation of world-leading investors in our renowned VC funds,
similar to the successful US Kauffman Fellowship.
- A £20 million investment to foster more ‘spin-out’ companies
that are created using research done in universities.
Spin-outs are start-up companies that are created based on
intellectual property (IP) generated through a university’s
research. The government is announcing the publication of the
independent review of spin-outs.[1] The review has been led by
two leaders in the field of academia and venture capital – Irene
Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Andrew
Williamson, Managing Partner of Cambridge Innovation Capital –
and makes a series of recommendations to improve the performance
of UK universities at spinning out companies.
The recommendations include best practice licensing deal terms
(10-25% university equity for life sciences spinouts as per
recently published guidance, and 10% or less for less
IP-intensive sectors). The Chancellor is accepting all the
recommendations and announcing £20 million for a new
cross-disciplinary proof-of-concept research fund. This will help
prospective founders in our universities demonstrate the
commercial potential of their research. The full government
response will be published as part of the Autumn Statement.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-university-spin-out-companies
