Fast-growing UK tech firms to have visa fees reimbursed

Christopher McKeon, Press Association Political Correspondent

Fast-growing tech firms will have their visa fees reimbursed as the Government aims to help them recruit the most talented foreign workers.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to set out full details of the plan at a London Tech Week event on Wednesday, but it is expected to apply to firms in the digital, life sciences and clean energy sectors.

She said: “We are backing the UK’s most ambitious firms to start, scale and stay here – with the finance, talent and support they need to succeed.”

The move is part of a wider effort to help “high potential” British companies grow while remaining in the UK.

On Tuesday, Business Secretary Peter Kyle will unveil a new “concierge service” to support the most promising new businesses.

His department said the service, modelled on those in France, Singapore and the US, would ensure the Government “acts quickly and decisively” to back businesses or “where necessary and appropriate, get out of the way”.

The service will help with regulation, procurement and access to funding and “global talent”.

Mr Kyle has also appointed businesswoman Penny Verbe as the Government’s “scale-up adviser” to champion growing businesses.

He said: “If we want the next generation of world-changing firms to be built in Britain, we must make Britain the best place in the world not only to start a company but, crucially, to scale one.

“Britain has the ideas, talent, and ambition to lead the world – and this Government is backing the businesses that will define our future.”

Ministers have said they want to see the UK produce a trillion-dollar technology business by 2035.

There are currently fewer than 20 trillion-dollar companies in the world, mostly based in the US and focused on the tech sector.

The UK’s current largest company, HSBC, is worth around 312 billion dollars (£234 billion).