Leyton UK, the country’s leading innovation funding consultancy, has revealed annual revenue growth of 50% for the financial year 2018/2019, its most successful year in its 10-year trading history. The UK division of the privately-owned company is now the fastest growing in a global portfolio of 25 offices in eleven countries. The unprecedented growth comes on the back of heightened awareness of HMRC’s innovation funding schemes, with companies looking toward specialists to simplify the process and maximise potential claims for tax relief for R&D and innovation projects.
The company works with many of the UK’s leading innovation businesses from SME’s to FTSE 100 companies, and to date has a 100% success rate submitting claims on behalf of clients. Leyton UK has worked with nearly 6,000 clients and has claimed in excess of £250m in tax benefit for their clients in the last financial year.
The company’s continued growth has resulted in the opening of two new offices in Glasgow and Manchester to capitalise on growing industry hubs outside the Capital, including oil and gas decommissioning in Scotland and the North’s burgeoning tech hub. ‘since its expansion’ last October, the Glasgow office has more than doubled in size and the company has also opened a new office in Edinburgh to capitalise on the fintech boom in the city.
In total Leyton currently employs more than 250 employees in the UK across their four offices. Alongside the opening of new offices there has also been a diversification of products including a new energy service launched to help businesses capitalise on Government schemes enabling them to claim compensation for costs associated with their energy generation. The new service is available to businesses in the UK’s most electricity-intensive industries to mitigate the extra costs passed on by UK electricity suppliers in reducing the use of fossil fuels and switching to renewables.
Leyton UK MD William Garvey said, “The UK has a strong embedded culture of innovation and a higher proportion of SMEs than other countries. Unlike the big accountancy firms our focus is on technical consultants who have genuine expertise in the variety of sectors we operate in.
“As we reach our 10th anniversary we expect strong growth in the medium term as we diversify and offer a series of connected products for our clients. The UK has still a way to go to catch up with other countries and we would urge government to go further and faster with incentives in this scheme to ensure the UK can remain an innovation leader.”
The R&D tax credit initiative was introduced in 2000 and is a tax relief scheme designed to encourage greater R&D spending and drive investment in innovation. The number of claims for R&D tax credits have risen significantly in recent years according to HMRC with £3.5bn of R&D tax relief claimed to date for FY16-17(1).
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