In conversation with: Ashley Austin

Transcript

I’m a Director in PwC’s UK Innovation and Capital Incentives team, primarily supporting clients based in the North of the UK.

At a high level, I advise businesses of all sizes across a variety of sectors and industries on a daily basis, helping them to ensure they can comply with, and benefit from the current UK capital allowances regime.

This ranges from identifying and quantifying tax incentives on fixed asset expenditure through to assisting on property aspects on transactions and assisting businesses in making investment decisions in the UK in respect of capital programmes.

My real passion is in respect of renewables and ESG, and I have been advising businesses who are looking to invest in this space, such as modelling the impact of tax incentives to assist with investment decisions both in the UK, and for investors overseas who are keen to understand what incentives the UK offers around capital investment.

I have been advising on interactions between the social and environmental aspects of ESG on capital projects. This is generating a lot of interest at the moment on the back of the energy crisis,the UK’s drive to become more self-sufficient and the Government’s focus on net zero.

Many businesses I’m speaking to agree that green incentives will stimulate investment and it will be interesting to see how this conversation develops in the coming months and years.

The UK Government has discussed making changes to the capital allowances regime to better support UK business investment, and to build on the momentum that has been generated from the temporary super-deduction. It is part of a wider move to foster a new culture of enterprise and growth to improve the UK’s productivity.

We expect the results and any changes to the regime to be announced in the coming months, in the meantime, PwC will continue to engage with our clients to help build clarity on what the new landscape for capital allowances could look like.

The latest proposed reforms present an opportunity to build on this by increasing the regime’s appeal.

If you would like to discuss the current regime or the proposed changes, please get in touch with me directly, or your usual PwC contact.