![[UPDATE] Game funding endangered as RDAs face abolishment](/static/images/news/35208/184_7085_184_6847_Game bodies.jpg?i=1277214675 "[UPDATE] Game funding endangered as RDAs face abolishment")
Coalition government’s emergency budget threatens the likes of Game Horizon and Game Republic
The coalition government has today confirmed it will axe some, and possibly all, of the UK’s Regional Development Agencies.
As Develop explained in depth last month, cuts to RDAs will have a severe ripple-effect on game-focused groups and initiatives. Events such as Game Horizon and State of Independence, as well as funding groups such as EM Media and Game Republic, all are threatened by the drastic measures.
Today’s emergency budget saw Chancellor George Osborne initiate extraordinary spending cuts across the public sector as the Lib-Con administration wrestles with a budget deficit above £150 billion.
“The Government will enable locally-elected leaders, working with business, to lead local economic development,” read a budget statement. “As part of this change, Regional Development Agencies will be abolished through the Public Bodies Bill.”
The cuts announced today by the Treasury are threatening a number of game trade groups dotted across the UK. Those affected will have to wait for the painful details, with a white paper on the matter set for release “in the summer”.
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Osborne previously said he would withdraw £270 million of the public’s money on Regional Development Agencies, suggesting some but not all would be abolished. But today’s emergency budget – which elsewhere put an end to hopes of game tax breaks – suggested that all nine of the UK’s RDAs would face the axe.
Four of Britain’s nine RDAs have deep connections with the game industry.
• Yorkshire Forward funds Screen Yorkshire, which in turn finances Game Republic – the association that funds studios and education programs in the region. Game Republic also promotes games in the region, and is also responsible for the annual State of Independence event in York.
• One North East funds Codeworks and that in turn finances Game Horizon – a leading trade event on the British game calendar.
• The East Midlands Development Agency has in the past provided funding for EM Media, which in turn is responsible for the EMMI fund that injects needed cash into local developers with, most recently, a £3.9 million war chest. EM Media says it is better protected from RDA cuts, however, as it raises funding from a variety of private sources.
• South East England Development Agency, meanwhile, is associated with the South East Media Network – which aids local developers and has Kuju’s Ian Baverstock a member of its board.
It is these four RDAs which, if hit by the drastic fund cuts, will make an immediate impact on the game industry.
[UPDATE: Game Central, the West Midlands Games Industry Network, has contacted Develop to claim that more than the four RDAs cited in this report have connections with the games industry.]
The Lib-con government has said it will in place create local enterprise partnerships – similar organisations based around England’s major cities and other natural economic areas.
Yet details on these local partnerships are thin, and the revision from regional to local allows the administration to cut everything it feels it needs to during the transition.
The word you're searching for is "abolition".
And hey, in the middle of a recession, nothing breeds business confidence like pulling the rug from under growing companies.
But hey, we've got to keep Britain's A+ with those credit rating agencies. 'Cause they were SO right about AIG.
Thought I'd point out that codeworks also subsidises (by £6k or 50%*) the payment of students on placement - without this the few companies that do offer placements may no longer be able to afford them: damaging both their staff growth and students job prospects.
*not exact - I'm a student not an employer or codeworks rep :)
Yeah codeworks do indeed have very good placement support in which half of a placement students salary is subsidized... This makes it great for both companies and students as it makes it affordable to give students the experience they need without it costing the companies far in excess of what it's worth...
I expect these cuts will not only have an impact on the companies in effected regions, but also a big impact on what is already a very small amount of graduates that actually make it into industry...
*Please* correct this piece .... absolutely not the case that only four of the RDA's have connections to the games industry. Most of them do, in one way or another, and here in the West Midlands - which is home to 20% of the UK games industry, (including major players like Codemasters, Blitz, Freestyle and now Rare), there is a significant connection and support, not least through the work we do at Screen WM via Game Central, (both supported by RDA, Advantage WM). This ranges from new talent/skills initiatives, (eg. iPhone Gamer Camp - as featured in Develop and x48 Challenge), to direct investment in games via Screen WM's Digital Media Fund.
Bear in mind the 'abolition' of RDAs will change the process of how funds are distributed and how businesses are supported; it doesn't necessarily mean there will be less funding but that it will be distributed differently. Time for change which will of course be costly in itself. I suspect the gov'mt expect significant savings in reaching business directly through other existing local support agencies. Now is a time to watch local authorities and 'local economic partnerships' to see how the cash is divied up ie. businesses may want to make friends with local economic dev units and locally funded creative industries support agencies. The screen agencies may be doing just that as they move to face locally, not only nationally, to secure their future funding.
