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Government accused over taxing times
The boss of one of Sheffield's most innovative businesses has called on the Government to rethink the way it aids private sector research and development.
Dr Stuart Green, chief executive of creative media production software specialist ZOO Digital, told guests at Grant Thornton's innovation seminar, held at Sheffield's Digital Campus,the instant one of ZOO's subsidiaries had made a small profit it had become ineligible for research and development tax credits.
"At the time when our business needs support the most - when it is going through an aggressive period of growth – those tax credits are no longer available to us," said Dr Green.
"It is great that the Government is providing support, but perhaps it has not gone far enough yet in supporting business at a growth stage."
Paul Kielstra, from the Economist Intelligence Unit, told guests that the UK had some way to go if Prime Minister Gordon Brown was to achieve his stated aim of Britain becoming the most innovative nation in the world.
A study he had carried out with backing from Grant Thornton showed that whilst British executives saw UK as just behind the US when it came to business innovation, global studies put the country behind India and China, although still ahead of Japan and Germany.
Companies across the world saw government red tape as the main brake on innovation, but, in the UK, the tax regime was also an issue.
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