TIGA targets investment to boost UK Games Industry

In advance of the June 8th General Election TIGA, the UK trade industry body for games developers, digital publishers and games education and service providers, have launched their election manifesto. The vision is to increase employment in the games industry by approximately 40% by 2022.

The ten main proposals include:

• Retain and improve both Video Games Tax Relief (VGTR) (by increasing the rate of relief to at least 27.5%) and R&D Tax Credits to ensure that the UK has one of the most favourable tax regimes for the video games industry in the world;
• Introduce a Video Games Investment Fund to provide match funding, up to £200,000, for original IP game projects;
• Enable UK games companies to recruit highly skilled workers (Tier 1 and Tier 2) from the EU and the wider world;
• Increase the amount of money that a company can raise via Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) investment from £150,000 to £200,000 per annum; and
• Encourage skills and training via the Skills Investment Fund (SIF) and by making the Apprenticeship Levy more flexible and effective.

Games Investor Consulting, on behalf of TIGA, have crunched the numbers and believe that significant growth between 2017 and 2022 is possible if these measures are adopted. This includes growth in studio employment from 12,600 to 17,500 and an increase in GDP contribution from £1.3b to £1.8b per annum.

As TIGA members we believe that these proposals will help boost the UK Games industry, which is an important sector in the economy and will help ensure it retains a competitive advantage as Britain leaves the EU. We already use our expertise in relation to VGTR, R&D tax credits and SEIS to help support studios grow and any improvement to these schemes will be greatly welcomed.

For more information on the manifesto please visit TIGA’s website: TIGA's Plan to Increase Employment in the UK Video Games Industry by 40% by 2022