So, what would Bidwells like the Chancellor and Prime Minister to do? Our experts set out their priorities below, covering science and innovation, the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, housing and energy and the grid.
Science, Tech and Innovation
Matthew Allen, Senior Executive Director and Executive Director of the Supercluster Board: “The Government has rightly shifted its emphasis from funding research to commercialising it. The Budget should take the next step and make the state a customer. If the state’s biggest buyers such as the NHS, the Ministry of Defence and Great British Energy back British scale-ups early, and the Scale Up Fund and pension reforms such as the Mansion House Accord direct more growth capital into UK companies, more of them will grow here rather than leave for the US.
“But keeping our best companies here also depends on having somewhere for them to grow and its employees somewhere affordable to live. The Budget must fund the infrastructure our growing science clusters depend on, above all grid connections and water capacity.”
Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor and East West Rail
Matthew Allen, Senior Executive Director and Executive Director of the Supercluster Board: “The Government’s renewed commitment to the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor is welcome, and recent comments from Lord Hendy that the Government will deliver East West Rail are giving investors and occupiers greater certainty to commit to the UK for the long term, as seen with GSK’s proposed move to Cambridge.
“The Corridor’s success will also depend on how far its growth reaches. Partnerships like the Cambridge x Manchester Partnership and the Oxford and Liverpool MOU, show how clusters strengthen each other, and from our North West base we already seeing occupiers, investors and talent moving between them. Innovation from Oxford and Cambridge should spread across the whole Growth Corridor and through every stage of the supply chain, from research and development to manufacturing. Done well, the Corridor has the potential to drive growth right across the UK’s science economy.”
Research and Growth
Sue Foxley, Research Director: “The additional £5 billion for the British Business Bank is a welcome step towards tackling one of the biggest barriers to British innovation. The UK is exceptionally well placed at creating promising science and technology companies, but too many struggle to secure the investment they need to grow into global businesses.
“Research by Bidwells and Beauhurst found that, of every pound of growth-stage capital raised by UK university spinouts since the start of 2022, just 0.8p came from funding rounds backed entirely by UK investors. Not a single growth-stage round above £75 million was funded by UK capital alone.
“The additional funding can help close that gap, particularly if it attracts more private investment into British businesses as they scale up. But capital is only one part of the picture. These companies also need laboratories, offices, infrastructure and skilled workers if they are to grow here rather than take their next stage overseas. The Government must make sure these investments work together if Britain is to capture the full economic benefits of its world-class research.”
Residential
Scott Cabot, Head of Residential Research: “Your First Home is a welcome policy, as anything that helps first-time buyers onto the ladder and keeps new-build sales moving is a step forward. But it is unlikely to repeat the success of Help to Buy. The original scheme launched into a recovering market with rock-bottom interest rates and far lower build costs. Today the main constraint is viability. The detail on 28 October needs to get three things right. Adequate but sensible price caps which minimises any potential distortion of new build pricing, modest contributions from SME builders, and a programme that runs long enough for builders to plan long-term strategies around it.”
Robert Sheldon, Partner: “As mayors take on more responsibility for the Warm Homes Plan, the Budget should open its funding to build-to-rent and single-family rental landlords on similar terms to social landlords. These portfolios are among the easiest homes to upgrade at scale, because one owner can improve hundreds of homes at once. Leaving them out would leave renters in less efficient homes for longer.”
Energy and Climate
Clive Meikle, Partner, Head of Grid & Infrastructure: “A great deal of positive development is being held back by the lack of a grid connection, with some projects facing waits of a decade or more. The NESO decision to limit pre-2030 connections for Scottish onshore wind farms only to those developments with planning permission in place prior to the cutoff date has left many projects without any expectation of a connection until well into the 2030s. The Budget would give developers more certainty and ultimately quicker delivery if connections were prioritised for developments that can realistically be delivered in the period until 2030.
“The charging model needs reform too. Generators pay fees to use the national transmission network, and those fees are highest for projects furthest from where the power is used. This has the effect of reducing the economic viability of wind development (onshore and offshore) in the very areas where the UK’s wind resource is at its greatest.
“As new pylons and power lines are built across the countryside, there needs to be a greater recognition of their impact on the farmers and landowners whose land they cross - years of uncertainty during the planning stage, followed by disruption during construction, and subsequent changes to how that land and forestry can be managed is often greater than anticipated.”
