CBI Says Low-Carbon Innovation Must be better supported by UK Government

The CBI called the UK Government for improving the research and development (R&D) tax credit scheme, which encourages investment and help Britain to continue to follow the path of low-carbon innovation.
This call is one of ten recommendations for Government made by CBI in the new report “Pulling ahead: innovating for low-carbon leadership”
According to the document, the R&D tax credit scheme gives companies tax relief, and can either reduce a company’s tax bill, or in the case of certain small or medium-sized companies, provide a cash sum. This credits allow companies to deduct up to 175% of qualifying R&D expenditure when calculating their profit for tax purposes. 
Other proposed measures include:
– support to cutting-edge industries active in the field of cutting carbon; 
– changes to government procurement to foster the use of low-carbon technology; 
– accelerating national infrastructure projects in energy generation areas.
Further proposals are related to the use of a transparent assessment to establish technologies that can add value to the UK economy, leverage private capital making the best use of public funds to maximise private finance, through business incubators and public-private hybrid funds for early stage development and loan guarantees to aid final commercialisation, and make it easier to get support even pressing for greater transparency in EU research programmes.
FinSMEs
08/09/2009

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