Tiga blasts Brown’s reforms

The CEO of UK’s games development trade association Tiga has criticised Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s suggested economic and employment reforms, announced yesterday, saying they ignored the UK’s bustling games industry.

Yesterday Brown announced the reforms – essentially a preview of the Queen’s speech to Parliament due in November – which included a new pledge for workers to request training.

But Tiga isn’t happy with the suggestions, and said that if the UK government is planning economic reform, it should seriously consider tax breaks for UK developers while it’s at it.

“The business rates supplementary bill could increase the burden of rates on games developers. The proposal to consult on establishing departmental regulatory budgets is positive, but the attractiveness of using agency workers could be undermined if legislation in this area significantly increases the cost of employing temporary staff. The Government must proceed carefully," said Richard Wilson, the organisation’s CEO.

“Giving employees the right to request training and extending the right to request flexible working to parents of older children should be manageable provided that the legislation is sensibly framed.

“Introducing a statutory right to apprenticeships may be good for some industries but is unlikely to help increase the pool of skilled labour available to the games industry. Games developers need a workforce that is typically educated to degree level. If the UK is to become the best place in the world to do games business, then the Government must make the tax environment more conducive to investment and increase the supply of highly skilled labour.

“The draft Queen’s speech does little to help the UK games industry.”