Sunak pledges to 'get things done' with £22bn R&D budget

Less than a month since the resignation of former chancellor Sajid Javid, Sunak stood before MPs to deliver a budget that will see a further £5.2bn invested into flood defence over six years, £500m to support the roll-out of a super-fast electric vehicle charging network, £533m to extend the Plug-in Grant schemes for ultra-low emission vehicles to 2023, and at least £800m to establish two or more new Carbon Capture and Storage clusters by 2030, which are expected to create up to 6,000 jobs.

Where should UK infrastructure investment be targeted?

Invoking luminaries such as Newton, Hodgkin and Turing, and referring to the UK’s history of engineering and scientific achievements, Sunak said: “We need to recapture that spirit… So the third part of our Plan for Prosperity is to invest in ideas.

“I will increase investment in R&D to £22bn a year. That is the fastest and the largest increase in R&D spend ever. As a percentage of GDP, it will be the highest in nearly forty years - higher than the US, China, France and Japan.