Labour, amidst the internal party crisis it’s facing, has announced it will be considering “further tax breaks” for the Uk games industry.
New culture secretary, Ben Bradshaw, brought up the issue in a House of Commons discussion about the interim Digital Britain report, published in 2009, and which failed to recognise the industry before.
Labour MP Tom Watson said “[v]ideogames make their players think, and they challenge them and make them focus, and many people in Britain believe that a medium that does that should be elevated to an art form. I hope my hon. Friend’s Department gives the videogames industry a similar status to that of the UK music and film industries,” from a transcript of the discussion
In response Bradshaw acknowledged the “importance of the videogames industry to the British economy,” and claimed the party was looking at “introducing further tax breaks.”
Richard Wilson, CEO Tiga, also called for greater support from the opposition as the Conservative’s Creative Industries Review Group is currently looking into the creative industries.
“With specific reference to the videogames industry, the Conservative Party’s Review Group should support a tax break for games production, similar to the European Union approved French tax credit. This would help to ensure that the UK videogames development sector remains world beating,” said Wilson.
An interesting turn of events as the opposition seemed to be more in favour of promoting the creative industries not too long ago.
In an interview with IncGamers, Ed Vaizey, shadow minister for arts and culture, said tax breaks were one of the things the current government should be looking into, and it would be a step to supporting the industry in this country.
We’ll have more from Richard Wilson later this week, so keep your eyes open.
