Chris Haley, Head of Startups and New Technology Research at Nesta, comments on what next week's Budget might hold for startups and scale-ups:

"Given the importance of startups and scale-ups to the economy, we hope the Chancellor will seize the opportunity to extend the Small Business Rates Relief scheme to coworking spaces, accelerators and incubators in next week's Budget.

"At the moment, small businesses themselves qualify for lower rates, but organisations that house numbers of them together often do not - unless they're in an enterprise zone or a local authority uses its
discretionary powers - meaning that costs have to be passed down, potentially stifling the very partnership working and innovation that these hubs promote.

"Any changes to Entrepreneurs Relief, which was tightened last year, or the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme would present a stumbling block. The latter have played a
significant part in the UK's crowdfunding story, which Nesta's research shows is now worth £3.2billion annually, and are viewed jealously by many foreign entrepreneurs."

-Ends-

About Nesta: Nesta is the UK's innovation foundation. We help people and organisations bring great ideas to life. We do this by providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills.
We are an independent charity and our work is enabled by an endowment from the National Lottery. Nesta is a registered charity in England and Wales 1144091 and Scotland SC042833

www.nesta.org.uk / @nesta_uk

For more information contact Laura Scarrott in Nesta’s press office on 0207 438 2697/ [email protected]