Economic Contraction Confirms the Necessity to Support Sectors with Growth Potential

By January 25, 2012 Press Releases

UK economy Contracts by 0.2 per cent in Q4 2011

 

TIGA, the trade association
representing the UK games industry, today urged the UK Coalition Government to invest
in the UK video games sector as part of a strategy for supporting economic
growth. TIGA made the comments following the
news that the UK economy contracted
slightly in the last quarter of 2011, raising fears of a double dip recession. The
data underscore the message on January 24th from Mervyn King,
central bank governor, that the path to recovery will be “arduous”.
The Office for National Statistics said that in the last three months of 2011,
GDP slipped by 0.2 per cent.

 

Dr Richard Wilson, CEO
of TIGA, said:

 

“Today’s GDP figures
show that the UK economy is now skating perilously close to a recession. Weak
economic growth also means that the Government will find it much harder to
reduce the public sector deficit. The best way to reduce the
fiscal deficit is economic growth, as a growing economy will generate larger
tax revenues and so speed up the deficit reduction programme.

“The UK urgently needs
economic growth to come from business investment and exports in order to
rebalance the economy. The UK video games sector can contribute towards
economic growth. The global games industry has grown by 23 per cent
through the global financial turmoil, and is projected to grow by 8.2 per cent
each year to 2015.[1]

 

“UK games developers are high technology,
highly skilled and export oriented businesses. Yet while governments in Canada,
France, Singapore, the USA and elsewhere back their video games sectors with
tax breaks for games production, there is no equivalent tax break in the UK. As
a result, the UK is missing out on jobs and investment.

 

“TIGA will bring forward proposals for a
well-targeted Games Tax Relief, better R&D tax credits, a Creative Content
Fund and incentives for investment on workforce development in advance
of the March Budget in order to power growth in the video games sector and so contribute to the
UK’s economic recovery.”

 

 

 

Ends

 

Notes
to editors:

TIGA is the trade association
representing the UK’s games industry. The majority of our members are either
independent games developers or in-house publisher owned developers. We also
have games publishers, outsourcing companies, technology businesses and universities amongst our membership. TIGA won 10 business awards and was nominated a finalist for 9
other awards during 2010 and 2011.  In 2010 TIGA won two business awards including
‘Trade Association of the Year’ from the Trade Association Forum.

In 2011, TIGA
won eight business awards including ‘Trade Association of the Year’ from the
Trade Association Forum, ‘Outstanding Organisation’ from the Chartered
Management Institute and two Global Business Excellence Awards, including
‘Outstanding Marketing Campaign’.  Richard Wilson won the ‘Leadership Award’ from
the Trade Association Forum and the ‘Outstanding Leader’ award from the Chartered
Management Institute. TIGA is an Investors in People organisation.

TIGA's vision is to make
the UK the best place in the world to do games business.  We focus on
three sets of activities: political representation, generating media coverage
and developing services that enhance the competitiveness of our members. 
This means that TIGA members are effectively represented in the corridors of
power, their voice is heard in the media and they receive benefits that make a
material difference to their businesses, including a reduction in costs and
improved commercial opportunities.

For
further information, please contact Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO on: 07875 939
643, or email richard.wilson@tiga.org.

[1] Source: Price Waterhouse Coopers June 2011.

Cookies

We use cookies on our site to track activity and visitor numbers - please help us by allowing us to use them on your visit.