Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced the 2024 Spring Budget, detailing a range of new tax reforms and financial allocations which the Conservative party claims will spur economic growth and strengthen public services.

The Chancellor announced that the Scottish Government will receive nearly £300 million pounds from the UK government’s budget.

In another move, the UK government will sell some of its shares in NatWest, after it previously bailed out the bank, formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland, during the financial crisis.

As far as tech, the Chancellor’s focus was in stark contract to his Autumn budget of the previous year. Headline technologies such as AI and renewable energy was mentioned largely in passing, perhaps denoting their ubiquitous rather than novel appearance in government initiatives.

Previously covered, the Hunt mentioned his public sector productivity plan, which would include the massive task of digitising the NHS, and using AI to speed up hospital processes, as well as improving the NHS app.

“Backed by £4.2 billion in funding, the plan will allow public services to invest in new technologies like AI, replace outdated IT systems, free up frontline workers from time-consuming admin tasks and take action to reduce costs down the line,” a statement from the government read.

The NHS is set to receive £3.4bn as part of this funding to update old IT and introduce more AI to diagnosing processes.

The Spring Budget will also allocate £120m for renewable industries to develop and invest in infrastructure such as offshore windfarms and carbon capture projects.

This is part of the £360m package for R&D and manufacturing projects in the UK, which is set to go to the life sciences, automotive, and aerospace sectors.

What Does the Tech Industry Have to Say?

Compared to previous budgets, tech appeared to play a minimal role in the UK’s Spring Budget, contrasting greatly with some of the government’s major ambitions to become a tech superpower.

“The Spring Budget, likely the last before the General Election, took place against an economic backdrop of continued stagnant growth, diminished living standards and scrutiny around inflation,” Rupal Karia, country leader UK&I, of Celonis explained.

As such, many would have expected the Chancellor to take this opportunity to play to the UK’s strengths, and give one final push to make the UK a tech superpower before the general election gears up.

“The UK is punching above its weight in global AI rankings. Right now, it’s placed 4th internationally in the Global AI Index, thanks to a consistent high calibre pool of tech talent,” Erin Nicholson, global head of data protection and privacy at global tech consultancy, Thoughtworks said. “To keep pace with this, the Spring Budget needed to include funding for Data and AI education.

“As a country, we are also falling behind on the reliability and scale of access infrastructure, from electricity and internet to supercomputing capabilities,” she also pointed out. “The government could make investment in our network infrastructure, to ensure all organisations can take advantage of AI and the productivity strides it brings, not just in cities and areas with better internet speed.”

The investment in digitising public services was met with positivity: “This level of investment in technology across the NHS and the police is vital to improve the quality and speed of the medical service and criminal investigation,” Rashik Parmar MBE, chief executive of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT said.

However, he thought the funding did not go quite far enough: “But funding for AI must include investment in digital professionals – people – who will work with it and lead it at all levels. They need not just high degrees of competence, but an understanding of ethical principles, which are key when using automated technology that affects our lives, like processing patient data, or responding to emergency enquires.

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“We need the public to trust that the UK’s journey to become the next Silicon Valley will make their lives better, knowing it is delivered by accountable experts who meet independent standards.”

As part of its investments, the UK is also increasing funding for the Alan Turing Institute, a welcomed step for Martin Taylor, the co-founder and deputy CEO at Content Guru.

He said: “It’s also important the Chancellor announced plans to increase AI adoption within the UK public sector that will allow for cost savings to be made across the next few years.

“The UK has lagged behind other leading economies when it comes to productivity and more must be done to ensure the public sector is operating as efficiently as possible, especially against the backdrop of tough economic conditions.

“If implemented effectively, AI has the potential to transform public services by providing a much needed productivity boost all whilst balancing the books and not compromising on the delivery of services.”