> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Two Things UK Founders Want From Healey’s First Budget - URL: https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/the-two-things-uk-founders-want-from-healeys-first-budget/ - Published: 2026-10-28T11:47:25.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-28T11:47:25.000Z - Description: The UK’s founders want two things from the 2026 Budget: stability for existing tax reliefs and fresh incentives to drive investment into high-growth startups. With limited fiscal headroom, can the government deliver both, or will founders be left choosing between certainty and growth? - Author: Sharoni Banerjee - Tags: Ecosystem Intel **Alex Depledge**, who founded *Resi and Hassle.com*, leaves her job as the Treasury’s entrepreneurship adviser on Thursday, just one day after John Healey delivers his first Budget as Chancellor. She says ministers treat Britain’s fastest-growing companies as a sideshow, and that July’s change of chancellor meant winning arguments she had already won under Rachel Reeves. We think her exit points to something worth watching today and that is, founders asking for two different things at once, and a tight Budget may only be able to deliver only one. > *We treat them as a bit of a sideshow* – **Alex Depledge, outgoing Treasury entrepreneurship adviser** The speech starts at around 12.30pm. Healey has less money to work with than Reeves did last year, because higher borrowing costs linked to the Iran war have eaten into his headroom. Estimates put it at £10bn to £11bn before any new measures, roughly half of what was left after last year’s tax rises. City economists expect him to rebuild it to around £15bn with about £5bn of tax rises on banks, online retailers and gambling, though none of that is confirmed until he speaks. --- ## Will the tax reliefs behind every startup hold? **Short answer:** Not confirmed. A capital gains tax rise has been ruled out, but the other reliefs had not been confirmed either way ahead of the 28 October 2026 Budget speech. - **Ruled out:** Chancellor John Healey has ruled out a capital gains tax rise. - **Not yet confirmed:** Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR), EMI, EIS, SEIS, VCTs and R&D tax credits. Pre-Budget previews say little about them. - **Recently expanded:** since April 2026, EMI covers companies with up to £120m in gross assets and 500 employees, and the EIS and VCT lifetime limit is £24m, with annual limits of £10m. - **Who each scheme helps:** BADR helps founders selling their shares, EMI helps employees with share options, and EIS, SEIS and VCTs help investors. - **Founder sentiment:** 73 per cent of 400 scale-up founders surveyed were not at all confident the Budget would be good for business. --- ## Will the Budget give startups something new? **Short answer:** Again, not yet confirmed. The only startup-relevant measures announced so far sit inside a £600m-plus AI package, and nothing founder-specific has been confirmed. - **Already announced:** over £600m for AI, mostly security-focused, including £165m for AI biosecurity and £120m for the AI Security Institute. - **Closest to startups:** a £25m challenge fund for UK AI and cyber security innovators, which sits inside the £60m National Cyber Shield, and £60m more for the Sovereign AI Fund, which launched in April with £500m. - **Asked for, not confirmed:** a tax break on sale proceeds reinvested in other British companies, and more pension fund money flowing into British growth companies. - **The constraint:** headroom against the main fiscal rule is estimated at £10bn to £11bn before any new measures, so anything new has to be paid for. - **The hint:** outgoing Treasury entrepreneurship adviser Alex Depledge says her proposals could include new founder incentives, but has not said what they are. --- ## What we will be listening for The first question can be met by saying nothing, and the second needs a measure, a number and a date. We will be listening for these three things. Do BADR, EMI and the EIS and VCT limits come through untouched? Does any measure move pension money towards British growth companies? And does the call for evidence on founder taxation that Reeves announced last year lead to anything beyond a consultation? If the Budget delivers the first question but not the second, will founders read that as stability, or as a proof of what Depledge says she saw from the inside? **Read next:** [*Employer National Insurance: What UK Startups Pay in 2026*](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/employer-national-insurance-what-uk-startups-pay-in-2026/) **Sources:* City AM (Healey’s startup adviser quits ahead of Budget, 25 Oct 2026; Healey vows AI will not “leave workers behind”, 23 Oct 2026; Healey expected to set £15bn fiscal headroom, 28 Oct 2026) · LBC (What could Healey announce today, 28 Oct 2026) · MoneyWeek Autumn Budget live · BM Magazine (Healey to unveil AI package; Budget tax breaks come into force for founders and start-ups) · Computer Weekly (Autumn Budget 2026: Healey sets out AI funding, 27 Oct 2026) · TechRound (Experts comment: will the 2026 Autumn Budget support UK startups) · Brit Brief (Healey’s first Budget) · Yahoo Finance (Autumn Budget 2025 reaction)*