This year’s Budget provided few major changes for the private equity and venture capital industry, but there were elements that will catch the eye of industry watchers, including tax breaks for social investment funds and a pipeline of new infrastructure projects.

Tim Hames, director general of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, summed it up: "With the striking and intriguing exceptions of the tax treatment of savings and defined contribution pensions, this was a Budget of small steps rather than great leaps in policy. That is not surprising allowing for the stage of the economic recovery which we have reached and the fact that we are approaching the end of this parliament."