Venture capital relief sunset clauses should be extended, says government

The sunset clauses for the enterprise investment scheme and venture capital trusts should be extended beyond 2025 says the government in agreement with the Treasury Committee’s recommendation.

In a letter responding to the committee’s venture capital report financial secretary to the Treasury Victoria Atkins and economic secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith added that further details would be provided ‘at a future fiscal event’.

The government agreed with the committee’s conclusions that more needed to be done to improve gender and ethnic diversity within the UK’s venture capital ecosystem. Despite this the Treasury has opted not to take forward recommendations to make access to tax reliefs dependent on the provision of diversity statistics saying this would introduce ‘legal complexity as well as further administrative burdens’. 

Committee chair Harriett Baldwin said: ‘We’re pleased that the Treasury shares our concerns regarding...