Lost in the small print of George Osborne's Budget was a pledge to explore the inclusion of crowd-funded equities within his new "Flexible Isas" – a validation of fast-growing platforms Crowdcube, Seedrs and Syndicate Room. But don't get too excited: last year the Chancellor announced he was extending ISA eligibility to peer-to-peer loans, and the consultation on how that will work is still ongoing.
Other securities that will become permissible within Isas include listed bonds issued by a co-operative society or community benefit society and "SME securities issued by companies trading on a recognised stock exchange". This may be a reference to stocks on the ISDX Growth Market - known as PLUS before being bought and rebranded by interdealer broker ICAP (IAP) in 2012 - but Investors Chronicle was not able to verify this. The exchange hosts companies including brewer Shepherd Neame, which has a market capitalisation of £154m, and vineyard Chapel Down.