On 2 February 2022, the Government published their Levelling Up White Paper. The key commitments in the White Paper include:
- Three new Innovation Accelerators: There will be three new Innovation Accelerators in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Glasgow. These clusters of innovation will see local businesses and researchers in these areas backed by £100 million of new Government funding to turbo-charge local growth.
- R&D investment: Research and Development mission will see domestic public R&D investment outside the Greater South East increase by at least 40% by 2030, with these funds leveraging a huge increase in private investment.
- Extended 5G to communities: The large majority of the country will gain access to 5G broadband.
- End illiteracy and innumeracy: Illiteracy and innumeracy in primary school leavers will be eliminated, focusing the Government’s education efforts on the most disadvantaged parts of the country.
- Education Investment Areas: 55 Education Investment Areas will be designated in local authorities where school outcomes are currently the weakest. 95% of these will be outside of London and the South East and will benefit from the intensive investment.
- Skills training: Hundreds of thousands more people will complete high-quality skills training every year.
- Local Skills Improvement Plans: Funding and giving employers bodies and stakeholders a statutory role in planning skills training in their area to better meet local labour market needs.
- Increase cultural spending outside of London: A commitment for 100% of the Arts Council England funding uplift to be spent outside of London.
Dr Richard Wilson OBE, TIGA CEO, said:
“The video games industry is one of the sectors that the UK should aim to promote as part of its levelling-up agenda. The sector provides high skilled employment in an export-focused sector, with 80 per cent of the industry’s workforce based outside of London.
“Our world-leading video games sector supports economic growth in clusters throughout the UK and depends on a high-skilled workforce. TIGA welcomes the measures announced in the white paper, including the emphasis on skills and education. The Government should also consider introducing TIGA’s Video Games Investment Fund (VGIF). The VGIF would create over 1,200 skilled development jobs and indirect jobs by 2025 and increase studios’ investment by £78 million.
“An increase in the rate of Video Games Tax Relief (VGTR) would also support economic growth across the whole of the UK, strengthening the Government’s levelling up agenda. Increasing the rate of VGTR from 25% to 32% will also enhance the appeal of the UK as a centre for games development, encourage investment and employment creation and enable our industry to secure a larger share of the global market for games production.”
About TIGA:
TIGA is the trade association for the UK video games industry. Our vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to develop video games. Our core purpose is to strengthen the games development and digital publishing sector. To this end, we focus on four strategic objectives:
- influencing Government policy via effective political representation;
- raising the profile of our industry to influence public policy;
- enhancing education and skills through our accreditation programme (https://tiga.org/education/tiga-university-accreditation) and the TIGA Games Education Awards (https://tiga.org/education-awards); and
- promoting best practice through our membership services, including the TIGA STAR Employer Award (https://tiga.org/star) and the TIGA Games Industry Awards (https://tiga.org/awards).
For more information contact TIGA:
Tel: 0845 468 2330
Email: info@tiga.org
Web: www.tiga.org
Twitter: www.twitter.com/tigamovement
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TIGAMovement
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/tiga