Contribution
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
Nowhere is the necessary role for the state clearer than in artificial intelligence, and we must forge a British way to seize opportunities and guard against risks that is based on security. We are already world leaders in AI safety and security, which today’s Budget backs with an extra half a billion pounds. It is based on sovereignty, with our first-of-its-kind sovereign AI unit protecting UK interests by channelling Government investment into strategic British AI firms, backed today with another £140 million.
To ensure that our most sensitive data stays under British control, I am setting out a new deal for data centres in the UK. When the NHS uses AI to treat patients, we want that data here. When our armed forces use AI to keep us safe, we want that data here. So here’s the deal: I am today launching a new British data centre covenant with strict tests that data centres must meet to invest in local communities, create local jobs and protect local water supplies. In return, critical data centres will get the grid connections they need, and where necessary be allowed to build onsite generation while they wait. Built on sovereignty and security, I want to ensure that the British people can benefit from the huge potential upsides of AI, with a new AI challenge prize to find innovative uses for AI in public services, and the union learning fund to back workers. That is how Britain leads on AI: secure, safe and working for the British people.
Let me turn to enterprise. Britain does not lack great entrepreneurs, but too often we invent the technologies that the world wants here in the UK, then see the jobs and profits go somewhere else. High-growth firms make up less than 1% of small and medium-sized businesses, and they generate more than half the output. From the start-ups of today to the scale-ups of tomorrow and the billion-pound companies of the 2030s, I want to see them succeed and stay in Britain. So for those just starting out, I am tripling the trading allowance—the amount someone can earn from a new venture tax-free—from £1,000 to £3,000. I am launching a new young entrepreneurs allowance, which will cover a year of living costs for young founders while they turn their ideas into businesses. As recommended by the women in tech taskforce, I am also announcing a new scale-up programme to support female founders, and the British Business Bank will double its commitments to women-led businesses and funds to £200 million.
We need to get the best talent into our fast-growth firms, so I am reforming skilled worker visas and non-compete clauses in contracts, so that people who help build one successful company can move easily on to the next. Building on our world-leading enterprise management incentives scheme, today I am launching EMI2, doubling the generosity of the company share option plan so that more companies can hire and retain top talent as they grow.
Let me say this to the men and women building their businesses in Britain: I know that starting a company means taking a risk, often leaving a secure job to build something when there is no guarantee that it will work. I believe that when business founders take that risk, build an exceptional company and create wealth for Britain, we should recognise that success and keep those people here to invest again. That is why today I am announcing founders’ relief, a brand new relief in capital gains tax, with a 10% rate on lifetime gains up to £10 million for the founders of our most successful firms. That is how we make Britain the place where the companies of the future are built: entrepreneurs backed by this Budget, investment backed by this Budget, talent backed by this Budget, innovation backed by this Budget, growth backed by this Budget, and delivered to the British people by this Labour Government.
When I talk about unleashing Britain’s innovation power, I mean in every part of Britain. That is why we reformed the Treasury’s investment manual, the Green Book, so that we can invest in the potential of every town and city. That is what I do today in the west midlands with £10 million for a new market hall in Stafford; in the south-west with £10 million for Bristol’s Temple quarter and £3 million to help Plymouth’s young people get jobs in defence; in the east of England with new access to Government borrowing for the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation; and in the north with £15 million to upgrade the Leeds College of Building, £10 million for Bury’s indoor market, £20 million to restore Liverpool’s Littlewoods building and £3 million for a tech company incubator in the Don valley. I can announce that we will hold the next international investment summit in Gateshead in the spring.
The devolved Governments will receive equivalent funding for the measures in this Budget, and today I am also investing directly in high-growth industries in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Wales, there is £2.5 million for a science park in north Wales, £11 million for the Aberavon bridge and £30 million for Cardiff Parkway station; in Scotland, there is £18 million for advanced chip design led by Edinburgh University and £6 million for Glasgow’s Scottish event campus; and in Northern Ireland, there is £7.5 million for AI and cyber in Belfast. [Interruption.]