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Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond announced plans Monday to ease concerns of British industry over European aid from Brussels.
There have been fears that major investments could be put on hold until the post-Brexit landscape is clearer.
In a keynote speech on the economy at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Hammond announced additional support for businesses and organisations which secure EU funding while Britain is still a member of the European Union (EU).
He told delegates: "The Treasury will offer a guarantee to bidders whose projects meet UK priorities and value for money criteria that if they secure multi-year EU funding before we exit. We will guarantee those payments after Britain has left the EU, protecting British jobs and businesses after Brexit."
Hammond continued the theme set by Prime Minister Theresa May at the start of the conference Sunday that Britain will leave the EU and become an independent global trading nation.
"No ifs, no buts, we are leaving the EU," he said, a message greeted by loud cheers.
Hammond admitted that Brexit negotiations would create a "roller coaster" ride for the British economy.
"We must expect some turbulence as we go through this negotiating process. There will be a period of a couple of years or perhaps even longer when businesses are uncertain about the final state of our relationship with the European Union."
Hammond made a pledge that under him the Treasury would continue to drive the Northern Powerhouse project, the strategy created by his predecessor George Osborne to help re-balance the economies of southern and northern England.
He said he would go further by giving further backing to the Midlands Engine for Growth, a similar regional strategy for the area around Birmingham.
Hammond said the Midlands region generated 220 billion pounds (282.69 billion U.S. dollars) to the economy, producing almost a fifth of all British goods exported overseas, and also accounting for a fifth of British manufacturing.
Hammond also set out a target to make Britain a global leader in tech innovation.
"Over the last few years, unnoticed by most of us, entrepreneurs and scientists from home and abroad have been turning Britain into a hub of tech innovation."
"Global businesses have followed, hungry for the inventions and innovations they are generating, developing technologies that will change fundamentally the way we work and the way we live."
On immigration, Hammond said Britain would remain open to the "brightest and best" talent from around the world.
He said Britain's economy would become the most outward-looking, most dynamic, most competitive, low-tax economy in the world.
"We will do it by making sure that after Brexit, we go on attracting the brightest and the best, the highest skilled and the most dynamic entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and managers from around the world," Hammond said in his speech.
Hammond also made it clear Britain would not have a surplus by the end of the current parliament in 2020, a change to Osborne's target that the country would balance the books by then. He said fiscal consolidation would continue.
(APD)
