Plans to exclude performance fees from workplace pension caps and recently launched changes to pension investment rules would generate a GBP5.26 billion annual boost to UK science and technology investment by 2030, according to the latest Market Spotlight report on the UK’s science and technology sector by Bruntwood SciTech.
In addition, some 8,900 science and tech jobs would be created by 2025, and 20,500 by 2030 with an annual boost to the UK economy of GBP1.44 billion.
The report also reveals that he North of England and Midlands would reap the biggest growth benefits relative to the size of their economies today, with life sciences and biotechnology being the biggest winners .
The report also forecasted the long-term impact of the recent introduction of a new investment asset class – the long term asset fund, or LTAF – to ease investment by pension funds and other professional asset managers into long-term illiquid assets.
The combined impact of LTAFs, which were introduced in November 2021, and the proposed fee cap exclusion, would unlock GBP3.19 billion in additional annual investment into the UK’s science and technology sector by 2025 and create 8,900 new jobs in those industries.
By 2030, that figure would hit GBP5.26 billion every year, alongside an annual boost to the UK economy of GBP1.44 billion GVA and supporting a total of 20,500 new science and technology jobs.
The study found that this investment boom would have an outsized impact on the regional economies based outside of London and the South East of England, in a boost to the Government’s Levelling Up agenda.
Investment into science and tech businesses in the North of England and Midlands would total GBP818 million per year by 2025 – including GBP330 million in the North West – with GBP810 million in London.
