BIA's submission to HMT's Spring Budget 2024

The BIA has submitted a representation to HM Treasury's consultation on the 2024 Spring Budget scheduled for March 2024. Below is a summary of our key asks:

Addressing the funding gap for life sciences is where the Government should focus its efforts. The Government's ambitious Mansion House Reforms and initiatives announced by the Science Secretary, all underpinned by a stable and internationally competitive tax policy, can bring together the financial firepower of the City of London with the ingenuity and innovation of British science for the good of our nation’s health and wealth. These efforts must be focused to deliver impact and the life sciences provides the opportunity to achieve meaningful and demonstrable positive news in the year ahead, with companies developing cures for cancer and dementia ready to scale-up if new private investment can be unlocked.

We encourage the Chancellor to continue to push to deliver on the promise of the Mansion House Reforms. We have worked extensively with leading institutional investors, venture capital firms and representatives of other industries to help shape the agenda and build momentum. Given the gap between US and UK VC investment is driven by an underinvestment in life sciences, despite our recognised strength in the field, it is imperative that life sciences – as a key driver of UK growth – continues to be central to the Chancellor's Mansion House agenda.

The UK’s R&D tax relief regime underpins private investment in scaling life science companies. To provide effective, targeted support to the R&D-intensive businesses building the industries of the future, we urge the reinstatement of the 33p relief rate for R&D-intensive SMEs.