Background Note
9.The tax-advantaged venture capital schemes are designed to encourage investment by individuals in qualifying early-stage and developing companies, by offering a range of tax reliefs to investors who meet the conditions of the relevant scheme. There has been concern about the proportion of investment into renewable energy companies whose activities are relatively low-risk and which already benefit from generous government subsidies. Much of this investment activity is explicitly marketed as lower risk or aimed at capital preservation, emphasising the generous tax reliefs, the relatively predictable income stream from the energy generation, and the generous government subsidies in the form of ROCs and RHI to attract investors.
