CRN VIEW: Tech the common thread holding the Budget together

Why the IT channel might be the biggest winner from yesterday's Budget

Phillip Hammond stood in parliament for the autumn Budget stuck between the rock of rising national debt and a struggling economy, and the hard place of pressure to fund public services, such as the NHS.

He also carried the burden of the focus on his own performance, with word of the chop if he failed to deliver. Add in the divisive Brexit-shaped elephant in the room and it was hard to envy Hammond's task.

As such, Hammond delivered a hotch-potch Budget, only tweaking big political issues and tipping its hat to some of the large debates, such as Brexit and corporate tax evasion. It lacked the hard ideological foundations of many post-election Budgets.

However, even in the most politically difficult Budgets to deliver the chancellor of the time also needs to find some glitter to sprinkle on the hard realities.

For our industry at least, it was reassuring to see that technology was both the common theme that bought the Budget together and that sprinkle of something else.

Hammond said the government is investing more than £500m "in a range of initiatives from artificial intelligence to 5G and full-fibre broadband", while he touted Britain's potential role in the world's "technological revolution".

Tech also married together the various aspects of Hammond's mix-and-match Budget, perhaps more than any other topic. The 5G and broadband plans play into the Budget's other driverless cars focus, while education was served with 8,000 more computer science teachers and funding for PhD students researching AI.

Who could have predicted that tech would get more mentions than Brexit?

The young ones

This government is also facing an existential crisis and this Budget was the reply. A survey for The Sunday Times found that only 12 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds said they would vote Conservative.

As such, Hammond announced a rail card for 26 to 30-year-olds, the scrapping of stamp duty for first-time buyers for a £300,000 house (and a discount for houses up to £500,000), and if it's not stereotyping them too much - a freeze on booze tax.

When they are not drinking on trains trying to figure out how they can afford a house, young people are also consuming technology. They are digital natives - the importance of technology is something they have taken as read their entire lives.

By making AI, driverless cars and better internet such a large focus, Hammond is making another play for young voters.

So what does all this mean for the channel? Our industry is the beneficiary of the unique current political landscape. With economic growth forecasts for the next five years all dropping below two per cent for the first time in modern history, the government is looking towards the tech industry to get us above that watermark once again.

Hammond said that a new high-tech business is founded in the UK every hour, but he wants that to be every half hour.

A "high-tech business" doesn't necessarily mean competition for the channel. It sounds like a bevy of potential end users.

Britain's economic outlook is currently bleak. And Brexit is bringing further uncertainty. However, if you could pick any industry to be in right now, the IT channel would surely figure in your final reckoning.