20 March 2013 – London, United Kingdom – Games industry trade body, Ukie, to work with government to minimise delay to tax relief and welcomes increase to skills pot Government has today used the 2013 budget to announce a delay to the implementation of the video games tax relief. This has been caused by delays in getting European Commission approval of the Cultural Test required under European law.
Ukie has welcomed the announcement of a further £10m increase of skills funding to be made available to the creative industries, including the games sector, over the next two years. This is adding to a £6m skills match funding pot for film, animation, games and high end TV that was announced by the Chancellor last November (of which £1.5m had been made available to the games industry).
Ukie has also said that it is delighted that the games industry portion of this £16m fund will be administered by the Video Game Skills Council. The Video Games Skills Council is run by Creative Skillset and chaired by Ian Livingstone; it is led by a cross section of businesses including Ukie members.
Commenting on the increased skills fund, Ukie CEO, Dr Jo Twist said: “It’s fantastic news that government has recognised the need to improve the unique science, art and business skills needed by the games industry through a further £10m being added to the existing creative industries skills fund. This is critical for the future of our industry. We very much look forward to helping to make this money available to the games sector through the lead role that we play on the Video Games Skills Council and through our Talent Development Coordinator Kim Blake’s work.”
Ukie Vice Chair, Chair of the Video Games Skills Council and Vice Chair of the Next Gen Skills campaign, Ian Livingstone CBE, also welcomed the new skills fund, saying: “The games industry has the potential to be a major driver of the digital economy. Today’s announcement regarding further funding for skills is great news. As chair of the Video Games Skills Council that will be administering this new funding, I look forward to helping as many UK games businesses as possible to increase their core skills to create world-class content.”