Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered the long-awaited Autumn Budget Statement yesterday, telling founders: “If you build here, Britain will back you.”
Addressing long-standing concerns about scale-up support, the chancellor said the government wants to make “Britain the best place in the world to start up, scale up and to stay,” unveiling a string of measures designed to help tech companies access funding, retain talent, and grow. But do those measures go far enough?
While the Budget may not have included everything that founders were hoping for, and reactions were certainly mixed, many leaders in the North still described it as “promising.” Here are some of the key takeaways, with industry reaction.
More support for scaling companies
The most widely welcomed announcement was the expansion of eligibility requirements for the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trust (VCT) schemes, opening up those investment incentives to more established companies rather than just early-stage ventures.
Under the new rules, companies can now raise up to £10m per year under VCT/EIS. Knowledge-intensive companies (KICs), typically those doing deep R&D, will be able to raise up to £20m annually. Lifetime limits have also risen to £24m, or £40m for those KICs.
From April 2026, the gross assets cap will rise to £30m before investment and £35m afterwards, meaning more established scale-ups will qualify.
These changes broaden the schemes to support companies for longer, allowing more mature businesses to benefit from early-stage capital.
Jamie Roberts, managing partner at YFM Equity Partners, called the expanded VCT rules a “real game changer.”
“Regional businesses often scale over a longer timeline and the previous requirement to secure a first VCT-qualifying investment within a fixed window meant too many strong companies missed out on essential early growth capital,” he explained.
For Ben Davies, marketing director at the newly merged venture capital and investment firm PXN Group, the increased investment limits are “promising” for the UK’s start-up and scale-up economy.
“It will help encourage more capital towards our most promising companies at the start of their journey. With more international competition than ever, it will help our best and brightest build more robust companies through a renewed ability to attract domestic investors. This is essential for the UK’s scale up pipeline.”
David Levine, serial entrepreneur and founder of Manchester Angels, agreed: “This is a big net positive for UK start-ups and scale-ups, especially anything talent and IP‑heavy. It finally connects employee options, growth capital and the public markets into one more joined‑up funding ladder.”
READ MORE: Modest measures, major leak — industry reacts to Reeves’ budget
And for founders like Martin Port, the entrepreneur behind the Leeds-based start-up and AI-powered customer engagement platform Build Concierge, it was long-awaited news: “Top of my Budget wishlist this week was an extension to the EIS and SEIS schemes. These boost funding for innovative and fast-growing companies like mine. Business owners across the country rejoiced when Reeves said that she was extending at least one of these schemes in her Autumn Budget.”
“Bigger and better-capitalised companies can also now access these schemes for the first time. This is good news for the UK. The banks aren’t lending. There’s no growth funding from the state. The country’s business builders are entirely reliant on private money, and EIS and SEIS are the only surviving schemes keeping investment flowing into start-ups like mine.”
However, he criticised the government’s decision to cut income tax relief on VCT investments from the current rate of 30% to 20%.
“What Reeves gives with one hand, she takes with the other,” said Port. “This massively slashes the incentive to invest in VCTs, which are a lifeline for early-stage companies. I read that when VCT income tax relief was cut from 40% to 30% in 2006/07, funds raised by VCTs fell 65% year-on-year. You cannot say that you want to support scaling companies and then make this reduction. It’s crazy. “
Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) changes and other measures
The Budget also raised the eligibility limits of the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI), allowing employees to benefit more directly from the value they help build in their companies.
It was previously limited to companies with gross assets under £30m and fewer than 250 employees, but now the scheme will now be open to companies with up to £120m in assets and 500 staff.
Levine explained the impact this will have: “Bigger, longer EMI lets real scale-ups (up to 500 people and £120m in assets) to keep using tax‑efficient options for far longer, so you can hire and retain top talent without ageing out of the scheme just as growth gets serious.”
“Higher venture scheme limits mean investors can write bigger cheques into UK companies as they scale, easing the classic Series B/C funding gap that’s pushed founders overseas.”
In a swathe of other measures for entrepreneurs, UK businesses will also get a three-year exemption from stamp duty if they choose to IPO in Britain, while the Chancellor launched a “call for evidence” to explore how the tax system can better support founders.
“The three‑year stamp duty break for new listings nudges more scale-ups to consider a UK IPO, making it a bit cheaper and cleaner to list and provide liquidity at home,” said Levine.
