CBI leads call for TSB funding to be increased

Earlier this year, Chancellor George Osborne announced his intention to cut another £11billion from Government spending for the period. The Chancellor asked all Government departments to review their budgets and there has since been a deal of 'horse trading' as ministers attempt to keep as much of their funding as possible. BIS – the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – is one of the departments in the firing line. Despite the fact that it funds a large amount of university research and industrial projects, BIS isn't one of the so called 'ring fenced' departments. Its budget has declined from £15.4bn in 2012/13 to £13.8bn in 2014/5 and it seems that BIS can expect another £1bn to disappear after this week's announcement. While some of that fiscal restraint will be applied to staff, it seems inevitable that some of BIS' programmes will be affected. One body which BIS funds is the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). From its early days as an advisory body within the erstwhile Department for Trade and Industry, the TSB is now at 'arm's length' with the mandate to stimulate innovation within UK companies. Since 2007, it has invested £2.5bn. Will TSB be subject to the 'knife'? Logic says it will, but a call for continued – and increased – funding for the TSB has come from the CBI, which says the TSB has been 'underfunded to date and is crucial to successfully protect innovation in the UK'. For the last couple of years, we've been told how innovation will be key to the growth of the UK's economy. It doesn't seem to be consistent that, on the one hand, there are calls for innovation while, on the other, the body which is mandated to enable that innovation sees its budget cut.