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30/11/04
Pre-Budget Must do More to Prioritise R&D
Intellect believes that unless Government, through its Pre-Budget report, commits to increase the incentive to invest in UK based research and development (R&D) , then R&D will go offshore and the Government will fail to achieve its knowledge economy ambitions for British business.
Commenting Tom Wills-Sandford, Director of Campaigns at Intellect said, “The government’s ambition is to raise the UK’s total private and public sector investment in R&D, as a proportion of national income, from its current 1.9% to 2.5% by 2014*. This lags dangerously behind the Lisbon agenda, which calls for 3% by 2010.”
“The government has just announced an £80m investment in innovation, which we welcome, but the programme must be supported by an effective R&D tax credit scheme. We welcomed the introduction of the tax credit but the ICT industry is seriously concerned about the outlook for the UK as a base for research and development. Intellect urges the Treasury to grasp the critical importance of an effective R&D tax credit, and increase the rate to above the ‘noise level’ of real incentive.”
“This year Industry urges The Chancellor to support the UK’s R&D base and enable innovation by moving the effective tax credit rate out of the ‘noise level’ and closer to the international average of 10 per cent. Without this increase there will never be sufficient incentive for UK based companies to grow their share of world wide R&D. In addition their ability to produce the innovative products and services that they need to compete in the global economy will diminish and the UK economy will suffer as a result.”
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