Relief as Treasury promises it will not cut UK R&D budget

Government “will abide by spending review decision” to increase science spending to £20 billion annually

The Treasury has confirmed it will stick to plans to increase public spending on R&D to £20 billion a year, after fears the government’s need to balance the books could see the plans abandoned.

At last year’s spending review, the government promised to spend £20bn a year on R&D by 2024-25, including boosting innovation agency Innovate UK’s budget to £1bn, allocating £800m to ‘high-risk’ funding agency Aria and setting aside billions for membership of EU programmes, including Horizon Europe, or backing homegrown alternatives.