2024 UK Budget reaction: what does it mean for the chemical sciences?

Responding to today's Budget, Tanya Sheridan, RSC Head of Policy and Evidence, said: "The chemical sciences are playing a critical role in tackling the global challenges we face, developing new, environmentally sustainable technologies and enabling advances to health. Government investment in and support for science, from discovery to applications, is vital to secure sustainable economic growth and tackle climate change.

"We strongly believe that continued support for research, development and innovation is essential for growth as it drives productivity, creates jobs, boosts economic growth and raises living standards, benefitting individuals and communities across the UK, even while we recognise that difficult decisions needed to be made with the public finances.

"We therefore welcome the Chancellor's announcement that the Government will protect investment in research and development, including for core research funding, innovation accelerators and Horizon Europe. However, we are keen to understand the implications for chemical sciences research, development and innovation in more detail. The commitment to 10-year budgets for key research and development activities is encouraging, as this can provide long-term stability, particularly in fields like chemistry, where the journey from discovery to commercialisation can be long.

"Achieving net zero is vital and the commitment to Great British Energy supports this. Delivering clean energy infrastructure will require a strong circular economy approach, to ensure sufficient materials.

"The Government's decision to invest in future growth sectors, such as life sciences, green hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage, creates long-term opportunities for the chemistry workforce. This investment underlines the importance of excellent chemistry education in schools, further and higher education, so the increased funding for further education is also welcome.

"However, the Government's Industrial Strategy Green Paper rightly highlights how the UK's higher education sector will also play a vital part in achieving the Government's ambitions of transforming the UK skills base and achieving economic growth. We would have liked to see more on how the Government will support this sector to support and develop the workforce for growing sectors."

Annette Farrell, RSC Education Policy Programme Manager, added: "Schools have been crying out for investment so the announcement of additional £2.3 billion funding for core school budgets next year is most welcome.

"The data from our latest Science Teaching Survey shows that 72% of teachers believe that insufficient school funding is having a detrimental effect on students and what they can achieve. Teachers have also told us that a lack of equipment and the cost of resources are barriers to them doing practical work with their students so we hope today's news helps to address that.

"The Chancellor said that this increase in school budgets will support the recruitment of 6,500 more teachers. For shortage subjects like chemistry, investment is needed to attract potential applicants into teacher training and retain them, and support existing teachers in the profession.

"We still await more detail on how the Government plans to meet this manifesto commitment and how it will help address the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis.

"We believe that all children should have access to top-quality science education so we are also encouraged to hear that an extra £1 billion will be devoted to SEND provision, which our research has also shown is a concern for teachers and technicians in our latest survey."