The hi-tech green industry got attention in this year's
budget, with £405m for advanced green manufacturing and £750m for
emerging technologies.
Chancellor Alistair Darling said, "Green technology will be one
of the big growth areas in next few years. We need thousands of
high-tech companies and skilled high-tech jobs."
Other articles on the budget:  |
Not only is it important for the environment, he said, but it
will play a part in getting Britain out of the recession.
There was bad news in today's budget speech for higher earning
IT staff, with income tax for those earning over £150,000 going up
to 50p from April 2010.
But Alistair Darling had good news for those who had lost their
jobs with statutory redundancy pay rising from £350 to £380 a
week.
The Chancellor also announced £2bn for business, to encourage
investment in industry and high-paid, high-skilled jobs for the
future.
Combined heat and power technology projects will be exempt from
the Climate Change Levy to encourage their use.
Extra funding
Extra funding was allocated for digital investment to help
expand the broadband network to almost every community, said
Darling. He committed to "universal service" in broadband at a
speed of 2 Megabits per second, by no later than 2012.
And there may be plenty of upcoming work for IT professionals in
the financial sector. The Treasury will shortly publish a paper
with Darling's recommendations for wide-ranging reform of financial
regulation. This could mean work for IT staff as companies work to
make sure their systems comply.
Investment in small tech start-up companies was also
mentioned.
The
full
budget report says: "To address under-provision of venture
capital for technology and high-growth businesses, the Government
launched Enterprise Capital Funds. Over the last decade we have
seen providers of development capital moving further away from
smaller investments. As set out in Building Britain's Future: New
Industry, New jobs, the government will launch a review to consider
whether, and in what form, further intervention could increase the
supply of long-term growth capital to small and medium sized
businesses."
Downing Street and the Treasury put live updates on Twitter
during the speech, and sent updates to mobile phones.
* Industry reaction to follow.