James Delahunty
26 Apr 2009 13:02
Tiga, a trade group representing the video games industry in the UK, has criticized Alistair Darling's budget for not including a requested tax break for game developers. Tiga's Chief Executive Officer, Richard Wilson, remarked that it is "disappointing that while Alistair Darling plans to spend £671bn over the coming financial year, he could not find the £150m over five years to invest in the tax break for games production."
Wilson had called on the government in the weeks leading up to Wednesday's budget to include a 20 percent tax break for games developers to help spur growth in the games industry in the UK. He said that games development is a "growing sector" and that the UK had a world-beating sector developing as it is.
The games industry might receive some help from the budget however, as it includes a £750m Strategic Investment Fund. About £50 million of this will go to the Technology Strategy Board (TIB) and a further £10 million will be given to the UK Trade and Investment (UKT&I) body. TIB helps promote "technology-enabled innovation" across the UK and UKT&I assists firms to compete in international markets.
"We hope that some of this additional money for UKT&I will be made available to help even more games businesses attend overseas trade shows in the future," Wilson said. He said that both groups have already helped out some UK game developers.