Albion VCTs

Albion VCTs raised £90m in 2025/26, the largest single-manager total in Britain's record VCT fundraising year of £917.7m (Wealth Club), driven by a retail rush before the income-tax-relief cut from 30% to 20% took effect on 6 April 2026. That positions Albion at the top of the VCT league table, ahead of British Smaller Companies VCTs and Octopus Apollo VCT, at precisely the moment the structural tailwind reverses.

Albion VCTs is a suite of Venture Capital Trusts managed by Albion Capital, investing in qualifying small UK companies principally across technology, healthcare and environmental sectors. The trusts are listed on the London Stock Exchange, giving retail investors the standard VCT tax benefits: 30% income tax relief (now 20%), tax-free dividends and capital gains exemption on disposal. Albion Capital's portfolio strategy emphasises businesses with recurring revenue and clear paths to profitability rather than purely pre-revenue bets.

The 65% collapse precedent from the 2006/07 relief cut, when annual VCT fundraising fell from roughly £800m and took sixteen years to recover, applies directly to Albion's fundraising model. A Focaldata survey shows 43.5% of current VCT investors intend to invest less and 41.6% say they will stop entirely after the cut. For a top-of-market manager, the 2025/26 peak is most likely a watermark rather than a base; the critical question is how quickly Albion's existing portfolio generates dividend cover to retain existing shareholders when new money slows.