As an inventor, I believe that individuals and businesses should be incentivised to invest in small firms that are developing innovations and inventions by way of serious tax breaks. Although the cut in VAT to 15 per cent was well intentioned, it has had a negligible effect on stimulating the economy, where encouraging the flow of private investment for promising innovations could have a far greater impact.

The economic crisis has negatively affected the net worth of many potential investors - thereby seriously reducing their number. Grants are very sparsely available, and the government's 'Enterprise Finance Guarantee' initiative is only available to those enterprises already generating revenues.

There are literally thousands of innovators who therefore do not qualify for any kind of financial support whatsoever, and yet their ideas, like mine, could potentially have enormous economic impact going forward. And it is a win-win situation for the government to provide tax breaks to those with the resources to invest in them, because the money will almost certainly be spent procuring goods and services from domestic SME's in order to progress their inventions. These investment monies will thereby go straight back into the local economy - now that is true fiscal stimulus.