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Employment, Universities and Skills and Housing

I am glad that the hon. Gentleman mentions that, because if he had read the business supplement of The Observer yesterday, as I did, he would know that the Government have just put in place a fund of £1 billion in extra money to do exactly what he thinks should be done. The article said:"““The plan, conceived by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta), was fleshed out in discussions at Downing Street””" only last Thursday at which the noble Lords Drayson and Sainsbury were present. The announcement was made pretty soon after that. The scheme will mean the"““doubling of government funding for scientific research at universities, which has led to an increased number of spin-outs,””" as I have mentioned,"““in IT, biotech, nanotech and green technologies””." That must be good news. I do not know whether it has percolated through yet, but it means £1 billion of extra money. The difficulty, as the hon. Gentleman knows, is that there is a deep valley between innovation and product called death valley. The venture capitalists are not putting in the money necessary to get across that valley, but the money that the Government are putting in will help.