Bankers will fund a £100 million boost to British science to pay for new facilities, maintenance and equipment, Chancellor George Osborne announced today.

The extra capital investment outlined in the Budget will come out of the levy on the profits made by the banks, Mr Osborne said.

It will be used to equip and maintain cutting-edge science at key centres in Daresbury, Norwich, Cambridge and Harwell, as well as space technology.

The move is intended to soften the blow of the axe which fell on science capital investment last year and encourage competitiveness and innovation.

Science was spared painful cuts in the Comprehensive Spending Review in October, with its resources being frozen until 2015. This resulted in a real-term reduction, taking inflation into account, of less than 10%.

However a question mark remained over capital funding - money spent on buildings, maintenance and equipment - which was not included in the CSR announcement.

Then December’s science budget allocations revealed that capital expenditure would effectively be cut by around 41% over the next four years, raising howls of protest from the science community.

Imran Khan, director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (Case), said the extra capital funding promised by Mr Osborne would make an important difference - but should only be seen as a "first step".

"We welcome the Chancellor’s commitment to making the UK a world-leader for fields including advanced manufacturing and life sciences, funded out of revenue from the bank levy," said Mr Khan.

"The extra funding announced today could be a first step on the path to making science and engineering pivotal to growth.

"But labs across the country are going to be struggling to make ends meet following the budget cuts announced last year.

"We have to use the UK’s high-tech base to help overturn our nearly trillion-pound debt. If the Chancellor wants to make the most of his new £100m investment, he should invest in science and engineering to the extent that our competitors, including China and Germany, are doing - or risk our economy lagging two steps behind."