Leaders of the UK’s Video Games and Interactive Entertainment industries have written to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport calling on the Government to introduce a new ‘Games Growth Relief’ in the upcoming Autumn Budget.

The letter – signed by over 200 leading executives – argues that a targeted relief would support the scale-up phase and transform British businesses from “promising SMEs into the sustainable, globally competitive businesses that will drive our industry for generations to come”.

Precise details of how the relief would operate are set out in an extensive report published by the Independent Game Developers’ Association (TIGA), which also argues for widening the proportion of qualifying expenditure under the Video Games Expenditure Credit from 80% to 100%, while increasing the rate from 34% to 39%.

As for the new ‘Games Growth Relief’, the report argues for the introduction of an Independent Games Tax Credit (IGTC) or Small Games Growth Relief with a rate of 53% on 80% of qualifying costs for projects costing up to £15 million. For those games with budgets between £15 million and £23.5 million, it suggests that the relief could be tapered down to 34%.

The Report reiterates the message of the letter, stating that an IGTC would “reduce capital constraints on SME studios, enable more studios to develop their own IP and enable more studios to scale-up and develop games with higher production values”. The letter also adds that modelling conducted by TIGA and the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) suggests that the new relief would deliver a return of up to £482 million in annual GVA to the UK economy and create thousands of high-quality jobs.

To read the letter in full, click here. To read TIGA’s report, click here.