We looked closely at the Chancellor’s 2015 UK Autumn Spending Statement this week to see how it might affect the technology industries here in the UK.

It seems that up to £600 million of additional funds will be set aside to support the move to turn the 700 Mhz frequency spectrum over to wireless broadband in the UK. This follows on from the European Commission’s report in September 2015, saying that the 700 Mhz frequency spectrum should be turned over to wireless broadband by 2020-2022. The UK is expected to creep in at the latter end of this timescale but should at least not be embarrassed by failure to meet the Commission target end date.

We were also interested in the “coming soon” attraction of broadband investment fund, to be set up with a view to encouraging smaller and more innovative businesses into what has become a difficult market for exactly those kinds of companies.

We will keep a close eye on this and start encouraging clients to apply if it looks like a cost effective way to raise new capital investment funds. Watch this space.