Autumn Budget 2025: What does it mean for the UK’s tech startup ecosystem?

Lara Williams

Wed, November 26, 2025 astatine 10:38 AM CST 7 min read

After a turbulent fewer months of speculation, it is hoped that the transportation of 1 of the astir highly anticipated and chaotic Budget's successful UK past volition pb to greater stableness crossed each concern sectors. Markets person reacted without notable volatility. While the UK tries to support its estimation arsenic a starring nationalist unit wrong the planetary tech ecosystem, investors and founders respond to the Labour government's latest fiscal argumentation changes.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced plans to alteration the UK's Enterprise Investment Scheme to promote further concern successful UK startups and scaleups. The Chancellor besides accrued eligibility to let scaleups, arsenic good arsenic startups, to entree Enterprise Management Incentives from April 2026.

Fred Soneya, co-founder & wide spouse astatine UK task steadfast Haatch, said: "Increasing Enterprise Investment Scheme caps is noteworthy and should beryllium praised. For implicit 30 years now, this strategy has been captious successful channelling concern into early-stage companies, and by lifting the magnitude a institution tin rise done EIS the Chancellor volition assistance guarantee that the astir promising scaleups—those already approaching their EIS cap—can entree much superior to enactment their semipermanent growth.

“Widening the scope of Enterprise Management Incentives is simply a affirmative move. These let tiny businesses to incentivise employees by offering them stock options without NI oregon income taxation liabilities, and it's a almighty limb successful a startup's arsenal arsenic they conflict to pull and clasp the champion imaginable talent. In the ngo to guarantee the UK remains arsenic charismatic arsenic imaginable to entrepreneurs and, much importantly, a large state successful which to standard a company, these small fixes tin marque a large difference, truthful the Chancellor has done the close happening contiguous by ensuring much tiny businesses tin leverage EMIs.”

“For the tech sector, leaving R&D taxation credits unsocial was a bully outcome. SMEs request certainty and stableness if they are to program for the aboriginal effectively—and this isn't imaginable erstwhile argumentation and taxation are perpetually changing, truthful the Chancellor was close to debar the temptation to tinker with this.

“Similarly, the information that immoderate signifier of wealthiness taxation wasn't introduced is bully news, adjacent if the broader taxation scenery has go little favourable crossed the past 2 Budgets. A targeted wealthiness taxation would apt person a antagonistic interaction connected backstage investments—such arsenic the availability of backstage equity and VC backing for high-growth startups—making it counterproductive for productivity and economical growth.”