Author: Sasha Haco, co-founder and CEO, Unitary

If we want AI to genuinely raise productivity, the government must go beyond investment and needs to become an enthusiastic customer for startups.

As an AI founder, I see daily how much potential there is to make public services and regulated industries more efficient. If the UK wants to build and keep world-leading AI companies, procurement frameworks must reward technologies that deliver trustworthy, consistent automation.

As well as capital, founders need customers willing to adopt, test and scale innovative products. By using its own buying power, alongside targeted R&D programmes, the government can set the pace for the wider economy. That’s the clearest way to ensure the UK remains a global home for ambitious, high-growth companies.

Author: Nicholas Hyett, investment manager, Wealth Club

There’s a certain logic to ISA reform. Anyone who hits the maximum £20,000 cash ISA allowance year-after-year should really be thinking about investing some of that in the stock market.

However, the reality is that this policy needn’t affect your savings decisions at all. Money market and other short dated fixed income funds available in a stocks & shares ISA mean investors can effectively hold cash within a stocks & shares wrapper.

On the plus side this means investors really don’t need to worry too much about this ISA reform – though banks may find the fall in cheap deposits more problematic.

It’s less good news for the Chancellor though. The reform was designed to encourage investment in UK-listed companies, but she may find that she has positioned herself against the UK’s army of committed savers and not achieved much at all.

Author: Shilpa Kaluti, CFO at Scrumconnect

The £300m commitment to modernising NHS technology is a positive sign, but without cross-government digital reform it risks becoming just another isolated upgrade. What matters now is turning that funding into real-world improvements people can see and trust. Across the UK, too many public services are still running on outdated, disconnected systems, and fixing one department at a time won’t solve that.

What today’s Autumn Statement shows once again is that digital investment continues to be driven department by department. While targeted spending, such as in the NHS, can make a difference, the lack of a unified, cross-government approach risks reinforcing silos, slowing innovation and limiting the ability to build services that work seamlessly for the people who rely on them.

A more effective approach would prioritise cross-government investment in the essentials every department depends on: shared data infrastructure, strong digital skills and modern systems that can talk to each other. Countries like Estonia have shown what this makes possible, with national platforms and common standards that allow services to connect effortlessly across government.

If funding was centred on the outcomes people rely on rather than departmental boundaries, the government could build services that match the way people actually use them. It would mean public services that are easier for users to navigate, more joined-up and far more responsive to communities across the UK.

Author: Fred Soneya, co-founder & general partner, Haatch

For the tech sector, leaving R&D tax credits alone was a good outcome. SMEs need certainty and stability if they are to plan for the future effectively – and this isn’t possible when policy and taxation are constantly changing, so the Chancellor was right to avoid the temptation to tinker with this.

Similarly, the fact that some form of ‘wealth tax’ wasn’t introduced is good news, even if the broader tax landscape has become less favourable across the past two Budgets.

A targeted wealth tax would likely have a negative impact on private investments – such as the availability of private equity and VC funding for high-growth startups – making it counterproductive for productivity and economic growth.

Author: Ritam Gandhi, founder and director, Studio Graphene

The Budget will do little to shake off the prevailing cloud of negativity hanging over the private sector, even with the Chancellor’s promise that ‘If you build here, Britain will back you’.

Consultations will not help in the here and now; from startups to corporates, the challenges that businesses are facing – from access to finance and talent through to stagnant economic growth and higher taxes – are not going away.

Such challenges place greater pressure on organisations of all sizes and sectors to improve productivity and find ways to do more with what they’ve got. Invariably, the answer will be technology and, in particular, AI. And that’s where, from a business and technology perspective, the government had already actually played its trump card late last week in announcing a raft of new reforms and investments under its AI strategy.

This was a welcome move and, amidst all the negativity that has surrounded this Budget, the fact that the government is pursuing different options to improve AI startups’ access to funding and routes to market is really positive.

They will likely be lost amidst all the noise today, but the AI Growth Zones, Sovereign AI Unit and ‘first customer’ policy were all good steps forward.

Author: Mike Parkes, technical director, GoSimpleTax

With resounding backing for businesses, the four-million-plus self-employed people may be feeling like there wasn’t much good news or support.

There was a clear message that those working in the gig economy need to ensure they are submitting accurate information and paying tax owed as a significant HMRC compliance package will clamp down on bad behaviour to reduce the tax gap.

No rise to fuel duty will be good news to many who work for themselves and rely on vehicles – unless they use electric cars which will see higher motoring costs. But the basic and higher rate thresholds for income tax freeze for three years will bring more self-employed people into the income tax net.

Extending this freeze to the end of the Parliament could generate substantial additional revenue through fiscal drag as incomes continue to rise – but leave individuals worse off and with higher tax liabilities.

Author: Cat Mora, director of research operations, Phasecraft

We welcome the UK Government’s commitment to targeted investment in innovation and the message that if you build here, Britain will back you.

Phasecraft’s work sits at the intersection of research and real-world application, and we strongly support efforts that streamline R&D funding, prioritise long-term partnerships in critical technologies like quantum and attract top global talent to the UK.

Widening eligibility for enterprise incentives and expanding EIS schemes will go some way towards helping this.

Author: Muj Choudhury, CEO & co-founder, RocketPhone.ai

It’s time for policymakers to be honest that spending billions doesn’t automatically translate into productivity. What matters is whether businesses and consumers can actually adopt the technology in a safe, trusted and human-centred way.

Right now, the UK conversation is too focused on big-ticket announcements like AI zones, sovereign compute and mega-deals but not enough on giving our workforces tools that solve real problems. Of course, major investment in compute and research is good news for the wider AI ecosystem but none of it has an impact unless people can use the technology meaningfully.

Mass automation isn’t arriving tomorrow. Humans aren’t ready for it and many of today’s bots simply can’t handle the nuance of real conversations. So if the Government wants AI to deliver productivity, the priority shouldn’t just be compute and R&D, but adoption, trust and usability.

One area that urgently needs attention is the day-to-day communication infrastructure that people rely on, from public services to small businesses. Whether it’s consumers dealing with fraud attempts, or organisations struggling with customer communication at scale, these problems won’t be solved by abstract investment. They require practical AI systems that support humans, not replace them and that make interactions safer, clearer and more reliable.

Author: Nigel Green, CEO, deVere Group

You can’t tell the world you want to stabilise the UK economy and then allow the centrepiece fiscal document to appear online by accident. That extraordinary kind of lapse signals operational weakness. Investors and high earners will be seeing it as a warning about the government’s overall direction.

When a government fixes thresholds while inflation and wages rise, it quietly increases tax every year. People who generate significant economic activity can relocate easily. They analyse long-term patterns, not political slogans.

International buyers and senior executives see property taxes as a test of policy predictability. A new levy on higher-value homes signals a government willing to target assets whenever revenue is needed. That is enough to shift investment strategies away from the UK.

People make long-term decisions about where to work, where to build wealth and where to retire. When rules around pensions tighten sharply, it undermines confidence in the broader system. Wealth moves where governments show stability over decades, not sudden extractions.

People with worldwide opportunities compare the UK’s choices with alternatives elsewhere. They see higher taxes without the growth to justify them. They see a government relying on extraction rather than expansion. They see policy changes arriving through leaks rather than discipline. This accelerates decisions to relocate assets, careers, retirements and families.

Author: Gary Smith, senior partner and retirement specialist, Evelyn Partners

This cap throws a spanner into the works of private sector pensions, where salary sacrifice is a crucial and valued feature of workplace schemes. At £4.7 billion, the tax take is greater than expected and means the impact of this policy on pensions, pay or businesses – or all three – could be severe.

Restricting salary sacrifice is a tax penalty on people trying to the right thing by saving efficiently for their own retirement and it’s yet another National Insurance cost increase imposed on firms, which may result in reduced pay and pension benefits for private sector employees. Some employers who currently pay more than the auto-enrolment minimum on behalf of their employees will be inclined to reduce their contribution rates or other employee benefits to adjust for these changes.

Under the current minimum auto-enrolment scheme percentage contribution rates, someone earning less than £40,000 a year will not be affected by these changes. For those who earn more, it will depend on how firms react and how they manage their pension systems. It could be that many white-collar workers will just see their monthly NI bill go up and take-home pay go down if they study their payslip.

But one thing this salary sacrifice crackdown won’t do is earn the Chancellor a backlash from the public sector, as a raid on tax-free cash would have done. It is politically convenient that public sector schemes do not generally operate on a salary sacrifice basis but rather operate as ‘net pay arrangements’.

A cap on employee salary sacrifice for pension contributions should therefore have little impact on the public sector, including all of the civil service and government-backed schemes, which will save this Government another run-in with the unions and vested public sector interests.

However, the upshot is that it will put a further wedge in the growing divide between private and public sector pensions. Restricting this sensible tax benefit that makes private sector saving more attractive adds insult to injury in a two-tier pension system where public sector pensions, underwritten by taxpayers, are hugely more generous and reliable than those available in the private sector.

Author: Leo Labeis, founder and CEO, REGnosys

Greater clarity on capital gains treatment, entrepreneur relief, and modernised EIS/EMI rules is exactly what founders have been calling for. This is a strong signal that the Government recognises how vital fiscal stability is for scaling high-growth sectors.

This makes the UK an even more attractive place to build and scale financial innovation and reinforces London’s position as the natural home for RegTech globally.

Author: Jamie Roberts, managing partner, YFM Equity Partners

The shift in the VCT qualifying rules to include more established business is 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.

This change means investors can support high-growth businesses for longer, helping ambitious management teams scale across the UK.

It recognises that ambition exists everywhere, and now the investment can too. This kind of policy encourages sustained growth, creates jobs outside the major hubs, and strengthens the ecosystem for entrepreneurs and investors alike.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch labels Reeves the worst Chancellor of all-time. A few Labour MPs don’t take kindly to that – memories of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are still strong…

“The smorgasbord of misery we’ve just heard from her can be summed up in one sentence: “Labour are hiking taxes to pay for welfare.”

She adds: “This is a Budget for Benefits Street paid for by working people.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

The Chancellor commends her statement to the house. Let’s see what the tech and business community makes of it. Stay tuned…

She is also taking action on energy bills.

She says the Tories’ ECO (energy company obligation) system costs more than £1bn a year and costs families more than they save.

She says scrapping it will cut the average household bill by around £150.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Reeves raised the National Minimum and Living Wages last year and is doing so again.

The NMW will be increased for 18-20-year-olds from £10 to £10.85 an hour. The NLW will grow from £12.21 to £12.71.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Reeves says she is increasing the basic state pension by 4.8% – £440 per year.

Increases to the new state pension will be above £500 per year, in line with Labour’s commitment to the ‘triple lock’.

 

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Reeves confirms she will be removing the controversial two-child benefit cap.

In one fell swoop, she says hundreds of thousands of children can be taken out of poverty.

She says the policy introducing by the Tories was cruel and the brunt was borne by kids, not parents.

The opposition benches try to shout her down but Reeves is having none of it. “It’s amazing what some people get angry about. They’re showing their true colours.”

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Reeves says she will generate £1bn a year through increased taxation of gambling/online gaming companies.

Author: Jonathan Symcox

Reeves is cutting the 100% relief on capital gains tax on businesses sold to employee ownership trustsm to 50%.