Peter Linthwaite, chief executive of The British Venture Capitalist Association (BVCA), says that there was nothing that was ‘obviously worrying’ in today’s speech although further analysis needs to be done.
“It will take time for our tax and regulatory experts to go through the fine detail of the Chancellor's statement but at this stage there is nothing obviously worrying in what he had to say today,” he said.
“We welcome the strong emphasis on the continuing need to improve the UK's competitiveness and the flexibility of the workforce and economy.”
Gordon Brown also received praise for his plans to establish an Enterprise Capital Fund dedicated to green and renewable technologies, as well as further investment in universities and research.
“The Chancellor is right to emphasise the increasingly important role of science, innovation, investment and entrepreneurship and we welcome the focus on funding for research for schools and universities,” he said
“This area is of great interest to the BVCA and its members and we recently published a report on how to improve spin-outs from universities.
“We look forward to continuing the dialogue with the Chancellor about how we keep London and the UK as the centre of the European private equity and venture capital industry.”
The warm words of praise for Gordon Brown are unlikely to please David Cameron who is under pressure to do more to regain support from the business community.
The Tory party Chairman, Francis Maude, reportedly said in an article in the Financial Times that the Conservatives could not afford to ‘take the business vote for granted’.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2006
