David Ovens, Joint Managing Director at Archangels, said:

“The Chancellor’s decision to widen eligibility for, and extend, enterprise incentive schemes is a clear demonstration of support for the role which founders and investors play in economic growth. Both EIS and VCT have been instrumental in channelling patient capital into innovative businesses, and continuation of the schemes ensures we can keep backing ambitious founders with confidence.

“The three-year stamp duty holiday for new UK listings is a positive step toward making London more competitive as a listing destination. However, the real challenge for Scottish scale-ups remains building sufficient scale and market traction to reach IPO stage. What founders actually need is a seamless funding pathway from angel investment through to growth capital and consistent, well-designed policy that makes the UK the obvious place to start and scale a business.

“The government has made the right noises. Now it needs to deliver measures that work in practice. Scotland’s investors stand ready to deploy capital into ambitious founders. What we need now is implementation that matches the ambition, ensuring schemes like EIS and VCT work seamlessly in practice to keep capital flowing into the businesses that will drive economic growth.”