Hugi Clarke, Director at Foresight Group, said: “Today wasn’t just Philip Hammond’s first proper Budget, it was Britain’s first proper Budget since the landmark EU referendum – and we have seen the Chancellor is not prepared to rock the pensions or investment boat with so much else going on in the background. Even though he was no doubt tempted to look again at potential revenue-spinners, such as fiddling with pension tax relief thresholds, he appears to have decided to let the Brexit ripples settle and concentrate on the crowd-pleasing reform of long-term social care in this Budget.
“However, in the next Budget, we would anticipate further pension changes which will give high and middle earners another reason to look at alternative methods of tax-efficient retirement saving. VCT and EIS investment opportunities are already under pressure as they become ever more popular as an alternative method of retirement planning following the pension freedom legislation – so we would urge people looking for such opportunities to begin reviewing the options that are open to them now.”
Foresight is a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager which has £2.3 billion of Assets Under Management across a number of funds, including Listed Vehicles, Limited Partnerships, Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs).
