The QCA has offered eight key recommendations for the Treasury to consider before the Autumn Budget on 26 November 2025 including:
- Reviewing its decision to cut business relief in half for AIM and Aquis stocks, and as a minimum, committing to retaining the remaining 50% relief until at least 2035.
- Simplifying and updating the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) to ensure that their scale and scope are sufficient to reflect the growth company ecosystem.
- Simplifying the ISA regime and creating an ISA product aligned with UK companies.
- Committing to removing stamp duty on share trading for newly listed companies on the LSE Main Market and reviewing its future removal for all Main Market companies to help boost investment into these businesses.
- Rectifying distortions in the tax system by levelling the playing field between debt and equity financing.
- Reviewing capital gains tax (CGT) reform and maintaining the UK’s attractiveness to high-growth companies by exempting gains made under employee share schemes from the CGT increase.
- Updating the qualifying limits of the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme.
- Modernising Share Incentive Plans (SIPs) and the Save As You Earn (SAYE) scheme in order to increase employee participation.
These reforms could be transformative for the UK’s public markets by increasing UK companies’ confidence, access to finance, and talent, while boosting investment and the UK’s international competitiveness. More broadly, by reinvigorating the UK’s equity market, they are supportive of the Government’s Industrial Strategy and Growth Mission.
If you would like to see our Budget submission in full, click here.
