Hammond to Offer $676 Million to Boost Innovation in U.K. Budget

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond will use Wednesday's budget to allocate more than 550 million pounds ($676 million) from the National Productivity Fund to boost innovation and technology. The funds will support work in areas including electric vehicles, robotics and artificial intelligence, the Treasury said in a briefing note. Hammond will also set out details on work to boost 5G mobile phone coverage in Britain. The plan for the series of targeted investments comes as Hammond on Sunday pledged to set aside money to cushion the economy from Brexit, and warned the budget would not include any spending commitments funded by borrowing as he seeks to balance the books in the next Parliament. The innovation fund would invest 270 million pounds to benefit projects including cutting-edge artificial intelligence and robots for offshore and nuclear energy, space and deep mining, the development of batteries for the next generation of electric cars, and new ways of manufacturing medicine.