Lack Of Tax Breaks Account For 9 Percent Decline In UK Industry, Says TIGA

The failure of the UK government to provide tax breaks has put the UK games industry at a "competitive disadvantage," according to TIGA CEO Richard Wilson. Speaking in an official statement, Wilson claimed that the absence of tax breaks is primarily responsible for a reported nine percent drop in the number of Britons working in the sector. The figure, soon to be officially published by TIGA, is derived from new independent data that has discovered the sector’s workforce has declined by nearly nine percent since 2008. “Many of our key competitors provide tax breaks for video games production," said Wilson. "No such tax breaks for games production exist in the UK. Investment and jobs are drifting away to other countries.” “TIGA urges the Coalition Government to look again at Games Tax Relief and improve R&D tax credits to help high technology firms including development businesses,” Wilson said. The trade association has been campaigning for tax relief for more than two years. However, the British Prime Minister said in a Commons session yesterday that plans for tax breaks and other relief schemes had been scrapped so the government could afford to lower corporation tax.