UKIE reveals new policy manifesto

UK video games trade body UKIE has called for further government support for the games industry.

Earlier this week it revealed a new policy manifesto at a Westminister Political Reception.

The key points of this manifesto are support to allow growth of UK games companies, promotion of the UK industry oversees and further development of the games education.

This follows the introduction of the tax relief earlier this year and the recommendations outlined in the Next Gen Skills report.

The UK games industry is going from strength to strength, recovering some of the ground lost to other countries over the last few years,” said Justin Tomlinson MP.

This growth has been helped very much by the hard work put in by UKIE and the major policy initiatives introduced by this government, such as a new computing curriculum and the recent introduction of production tax relief. However, more can of course be done and in my new role working closely with Ed Vaizey I very much welcome UKIE’s new policy manifesto and look forward to discussing its recommendations with Jo and her team in more detail over the coming months.”

UKIE CEO Dr Jo Twist added: We were delighted by the introduction of games industry tax relief earlier this year but quickly realised that it is essential that we maximise the opportunities that the new scheme presents. We have therefore spent the last six months speaking to our members from across the breadth of our sector about the measures that they would like to see the UK government introduce to truly put the UK’s games industry on the global map.

"Our policy manifesto outlines our members priority asks and we will be following this up with more detailed papers and briefings to MPs to continue our push to make this the best country in the world to make and sell games.”