November 11, 2019

TIGA says that its ambition is for the UK video games industry to continue to grow strongly over the next four years. The aim is to achieve the following growth by 2023:

• employment in the sector to grow from 14,350 to 18,300 development staff;
• studio numbers to grow from 812 to 1,000;
• an expansion in the overall games company count (including development studios, publishers and service providers) from 992 to 1,200;
• an increase in annual investment by games development companies from £818 million to over £1 billion;
• an increase in GDP contribution from £1.8 billion to £2.3 billion per annum; and
• for 40 UK games courses to achieve TIGA University Accreditation.

TIGA says that it aims to achieve this vision by working with the Government and Parliament to adopt TIGA’s manifesto proposals:

• retain and improve both Video Games Tax Relief (by increasing the rate of Relief to 27.5% or 30%) and the Research and Development 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 pound for pound match funding, up to a maximum of £500,000, for original IP game projects to improve games businesses’ ability to access finance;
• maintain support for the UK Games Talent and Finance CIC in order to provide financial support of £25,000 for prototypes and for skills development;
• enable UK games companies to recruit highly skilled workers (Tier 1 and Tier 2 workers) from the EU and the wider world;
• when negotiating a UK-EU trade deal, avoid quotas, tariffs and other barriers to trade. A future UK-EU trade deal must ensure the free flow of personal data from the EU to the UK and vice versa so that UK games companies can continue to communicate easily with their EU consumers. Free trade in video games already exists and this should be maintained;
• strengthen high technology video games clusters around the UK, for example, by improving infrastructure, internet speeds, reduced business rates, providing incubators and cementing industry-education links;
• encourage skills and training by reforming the Apprenticeship Levy into a Training Levy and introducing a Skills Investment Fund to provide pound for pound match funding;
• strengthen higher education by making up any short-fall in funding following the UK’s departure from the EU and by ensuring that any new visa system governing migration from the EU does not impair the ability of UK universities to recruit either academic staff or students from the EU. Ensure there are no barriers to research collaborations and funding opportunities following a departure from the EU;
• ensure that the proposed regulatory framework set out in the Online Harms White Paper, which includes plans to establish a new statutory “duty of care” to make companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users, protects online users whilst ensuring that the UK is the best place in the world to start and grow a digital business. Any new regulations should be proportionate in nature; and
• advancing the scale and speed of full fibre broadband to achieve nation-wide superfast internet coverage. Wherever possible, the Government’s target for full fibre broadband coverage by 2033 should be brought forward. Comprehensive 5G coverage is also required to ensure UK businesses have the internet access they need to remain competitive in the digital world.

To read TIGA’s press release in full, click here.