Growth Plan 2022—key IP announcements

Article summary

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, delivered an emergency budget on 23 September 2022, entitled the 'Growth Plan 2022'. The Growth Plan notes the opening of the Long-term Investment for Technology & Science (LIFTS) competition, which will provide about £500m to support new funds of investment from pension schemes and other UK investors to support and scale up UK science and technology businesses. A call for proposals will be launched by the end of 2022 to identify promising fund structures and vehicles, and the funds are hoped to go live as soon as possible in 2023. It was also confirmed that, following the 2021 Research and Development (R&D) tax reliefs review and subsequent reforms, such as including data and cloud computing as new qualifying costs and reprioritising the reliefs towards innovation in the UK, the government will continue the review and will announce any further reforms as usual at a fiscal event.