The CBI, a self-proclaimed advocate of and lobbying organization for UK creative industries, has issued a manifesto which serves up detailed recommendations on how to stimulate expansion within that sector.
Entitled Creating Growth: A Blueprint for the Creative Industries (PDF), the document puts the onus on elected officlas, stating that “The government should develop a strategy to deliver the right business environment.”
Among its suggestions, the CBI wrote that the government must:
• Develop an up-to-date, coherent strategy for the creative industries, recognizing their contribution to the economy and the structural changes they face.
• Ensure regulation and competition policy is fit for purpose.
• Deliver a skilled employee pool to meet the many and varied roles in the creative industries.
• Ensure the ability to derive value from intellectual property.
• Deliver a competitive tax framework.
• Ensure access to finance for creative industries
• Encourage investment in infrastructure to support new business models.
The CBI added, “The hard-won competitive strength of our creative sector is the envy of many other countries, which want to emulate and overtake our position.”
Dr. Richard Wilson, head of game industry group TIGA, agreed, stating:
The CBI recognises that we need a competitive tax framework to enable the creative industries in general and the video games sector in particular to flourish. At present, we lack such a framework. Our tax system fails to support the video games industry. Our key competitors benefit from generous tax breaks for games production. We do not. The UK Government must address this issue.
