diff --git a/pygenn/genn_model.py b/pygenn/genn_model.py
index f5009a4b9..d0e27d3c4 100644
--- a/pygenn/genn_model.py
+++ b/pygenn/genn_model.py
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@
 from os import path, environ
 from platform import system
 from psutil import cpu_count
-from setuptools import msvc
 from shutil import which
 from subprocess import check_call  # to call make
 from textwrap import dedent
@@ -70,9 +69,17 @@
 
 # If we're on windows
 if system() == "Windows":
+    # Try import the helper to get Visual C++ environment from setuptools
+    # **NOTE** this was removed in version 74.0
+    try:
+        from setuptools.msvc import msvc14_get_vc_env as _get_vc_env
+    # If this fails, import from distutils
+    except ImportError:
+        from distutils._msvccompiler import _get_vc_env
+    
     # Get environment and cache in class, convertings
     # all keys to upper-case for consistency
-    _msvc_env = msvc.msvc14_get_vc_env("x86_amd64")
+    _msvc_env = _get_vc_env("x86_amd64")
     _msvc_env = {k.upper(): v for k, v in _msvc_env.items()}
     
     # Update process's environment with this
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index df63b9bb3..046668b07 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -290,7 +290,7 @@
     python_requires=">=3.6",
     install_requires=["numpy>=1.17", "psutil",
                       "importlib-metadata>=1.0;python_version<'3.8'",
-                      "setuptools<74.0"],
+                      "setuptools"],
     extras_require={
         "doc": ["sphinx", "sphinx-gallery", "sphinx-argparse"],
         "userproject": ["mnist", "tqdm", "scipy", "matplotlib"],