On 26 November 2025, Rachel Reeves delivered the UK Government’s Autumn Budget, announcing a package of measures designed to reinforce support for entrepreneurs, including new-listing incentives and structural reforms to make raising growth capital easier.
The timing matters. The AIM market has spent the past few years navigating a tougher environment – persistent outflows from smaller companies’ funds, investor caution, fewer new listings, and higher operating costs for growing companies. Many strong businesses have continued to deliver, but the market has undeniably been in a holding pattern, waiting for a shift in sentiment and policy direction. For founders and investors alike, confidence has been the missing ingredient.
This has created a clear funding gap, with real consequences. We’ve seen some brilliant UK companies list overseas where the support, clarity, and growth pathways have simply been stronger. Throughout this period, we – alongside other institutions – have been lobbying hard, working closely with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and engaging directly with the government and Treasury. For months we’ve been pushing for practical, targeted changes, and at last, some of those have been acknowledged.
The Budget showed that our message is landing. The government was clear: they want the UK to be the home for start-ups and scale-ups – and give them every chance to grow and stay. For AIM, that means a renewed storyline of support and optimism. More importantly, this isn’t just talk: steps have been taken that have immediate, tangible effects. The dial is moving, and we are starting a journey to reinvigorate AIM, supported by clearer policy direction and measures designed to close the funding gap, attract capital, and restore momentum.
Government measures strengthen UK innovation
AIM is one of the UK’s most important engines of innovation and growth. It has helped more than 4,000 companies raise over £136 billion since launch1, backing sectors from clean energy and life sciences to digital infrastructure and advanced manufacturing. AIM companies provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, build regional economic strength, and often become the mid-cap powerhouses that anchor the UK economy – ASOS, FeverTree and Jet2 being examples. When AIM thrives, the UK’s innovation thrives – which is exactly why this renewed government focus is so significant.
The Budget delivered a strong tech-and-innovation push aimed at keeping companies on UK soil. Reeves announced expanded support for science and technology firms, including continued R&D tax reliefs, new investment in AI and semiconductor industries, and a major funding injection through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to support cutting-edge firms.
To ensure scaling firms – not just start-ups – benefit, the government doubled the eligibility thresholds for Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) and Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs). From April 2026, companies will be able to raise up to £10 million per year (and up to £24 million over their lifetime) under the relevant schemes. At the same time, the government is allowing more flexibility for share-option schemes so that later-stage firms can still offer attractive equity-based incentives to talent.
For AIM, this is a strong underpinning. The changes are tangible and immediate, addressing the funding gap that has emerged in the AIM market. Under the expanded rules, significantly more companies will be eligible for VCT funding, and early signs point to increased investor demand this tax year. These steps benefit companies across a range of sectors from all over the UK, and mean founders and investors now have better reason to stay in the UK and aim for public listing rather than moving overseas.
Continuing the Mansion House Accord momentum
In May 2025, seventeen of the UK’s largest workplace pension providers signed the Mansion House Accord, committing to invest at least 10% of their defined-contribution (DC) default funds into private markets by 2030, with at least 5% of that earmarked for UK-based private market assets.
This pledge could mobilise up to £50 billion into private equity, infrastructure, clean energy, and growth-company investments2 – with a substantial portion intended for UK companies. For AIM-listed companies, this is a potentially deep and sustained pool of capital. Beyond pensions, there are opportunities to expand support through other institutions, such as British Business Bank initiatives and private markets, to ensure AIM benefits from government-backed capital and wider institutional participation.
Just before the Budget, the LSE published its feedback statement on Shaping the Future of AIM (November 2025), reaffirming AIM’s core purpose and setting out a list of practical changes needed. Adjustments to dual share-class rules, related-party transactions, reverse-takeover rules and suspension rules were highlighted as ways to reduce friction and simplify the route to raising capital.
The Budget has responded to many of these asks. By removing unnecessary hurdles and simplifying processes, the government has taken tangible steps to make it easier for growing businesses to raise capital efficiently and remain in the UK.
To summarise… momentum is building
With the Autumn Budget and related reforms, the government has laid out more than just tax tweaks. It’s sending a clear signal that it wants to boost UK capital markets and support home-grown growth. AIM is right in the mix: a more attractive place to list, a stronger pull for investors, and a visible part of the UK’s growth story. While there is still work to be done, these reforms mark the beginning of a reframing of AIM as a key piece of the UK growth puzzle.
The road ahead remains long. Stripping back regulatory red tape, supporting companies across the UK, and backing the remarkable spin-out businesses emerging from universities are all crucial to driving growth and innovation. There is also a need for policy recognition of the role that ISAs and pension funds can play in supporting quoted companies. Unlocking significant pools of scale-up capital and encouraging greater UK exposure in Stocks & Shares ISAs would materially strengthen the ecosystem.
All being said, after years of uncertainty, we can now see AIM being reinvigorated, with momentum, opportunity, and policy coming together to support UK growth.
1 Grant Thornton’s report 2024, ‘The Economic Impact of AIM’
2 FT Adviser, May 2025. ‘Pension funds to boost investment in UK firms under Mansion House Accord’
