Who are the tech winners of Budget 2010?

Despite the expectation that this would be one of the most significant budgets in recent times for the tech industry, the chancellor actually announced very little that we didn't know already.

Aside from the calculated political moves and pre-electioneering, Darling made two significant announcements; an indication that more SME tech providers would be considered for large government contracts, and extra funding to stimulate start-ups and create more university places on science and tech courses.

The first announcement - a 15 per cent increase in the number of government contracts awarded to SMEs - could be seen as a concession to the Tories.

The Conservative Party stated in its tech manifesto launched a fortnight ago that it would "open up government IT contracts to SMEs by breaking up large IT projects into smaller components".

Being the cynical tech hacks that we are at V3.co.uk, it was notable that the chancellor didn't specify how many contracts are awarded to SMEs at present - after all, a 15 per cent increase on not very much is still not very much.

Secondly, Darling pledged a £35m capital fund to support innovation and help start-ups which are created by university graduates - many of whom will no doubt end up in the tech space.

Any money will certainly be gratefully accepted by the universities, especially given the dire state of tech innovation in the UK. A straw poll of V3.co.uk editorial staff came up with only one tech success story that has spun out of university research - Autonomy.

However it will certainly take more than this to create an environment where the UK is able to emulate the success of American universities such as MIT and Stanford, which have given birth to global giants such as Google.

Also looking to the future, the chancellor announced a one off £270m hand-out to help universities create 20,000 more places for students to study subjects like science and technology.

However, any celebrations by those working in the higher education sector are likely to be short lived, with Darling warning that universities "must make efficiency savings". It wouldn't be out of the question to see a future government, Labour or otherwise, offset this outlay by taking away in other areas of university funding.

Finally, Darling restated his party's hugely unpopular 50p a month landline tax plans in order to pay for broadband coverage in hitherto poorly served areas.

The debate on that one will continue to rage as the Digital Economy Bill is debated in the Commons, with the Tories arguing that a portion of the BBC licence fee should be used to fund the scheme instead.

Interestingly, Darling referred to extending next generation broadband to 90 per cent of the UK by 2017, a target which falls short of Gordon Brown's albeit heavily-caveated pledge on Monday to provide "superfast broadband digital power" to every home.

24 Mar 2010