Woodford 'absolutely Delighted' With Chancellor's Investment Fund Plans For British Start-ups

In his first Autumn Budget read yesterday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond announced plans to boost investment in Britain's smaller and higher risk businesses.

He said the government is publishing an action plan to unlock over £20bn of new investment in UK knowledge-intensive, scale-up businesses. This will be done through a new fund in the British Business Bank seeded with £2.5bn of public money.

Woodford said he is "absolutely delighted about the announcement...to help young, knowledge based British businesses" in his most recent blog post reflecting on the 2017' s Autumn Budget.

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The manager added: "I genuinely believe this will be transformational for Britain's long-term economic future.

"The ability to access capital is profoundly important and the significant improvement in the amount of it availability of this capital will help young, knowledge-intensive British businesses scale-up and fulfill their long-term potential."

Woodford has been a long-term strong supporter of start-up and unquoted companies within his portfolios and has been outspoken about his desire for the UK government to provide more support themselves.

Earlier this year, the manager backed the initiative to launch a Patient Capital ISA, though the idea was dismissed by the Treasury after a consultation paper.

At the time, he said there was evidence to suggest many mass-affluent investors would invest in early-stage businesses over the long term if they had the appropriate incentives to do so.

The Woodford Patient Capital trust invests in both quoted and unquoted companies, as does the open-ended Woodford Equity Income fund.