UK Government Falling Short On Low-Carbon Research: CBI

Posted on 08. Sep, 2009 by Ross in Corporate Policy, United Kingdom

The low-carbon future of the UK economy hinges upon improved government research and development support for businesses.

That was the declaration by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), who today said that the UK Government must maintain and improve the research and development (R&D) tax credit scheme to help Britain lead the way in low-carbon innovation, to not only reduce the nation’s environmental impact but to play a key role in the post-carbon economy of the future.

The move came immediately after an expansion of the government’s cleantech business incubation scheme via the Carbon Trust, providing an additional £1.75 million in funding for 25 new start-ups. The timing of the CBI’s statement would appear to signal that they believe such moves to be a drop in the ocean, and are hoping to persuade the government to commit more to the UK’s low carbon future.

The call is just one of ten recommendations for government made by Britain’s leading business group in a new report, Pulling ahead: innovating for low-carbon leadership. Proposed measures include further policies to support cutting-edge industries that help cut carbon, changes to government procurement to foster take-up of low-carbon technology and accelerating national infrastructure projects in areas like energy generation. The CBI also makes three recommendations for business.

R&D tax credit schemes give 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. The credits allow relevant companies to deduct up to 175% of qualifying R&D expenditure when calculating their profit for tax purposes. John Cridland, the CBI’s Deputy Director-General, said:

Britain has great expertise in low-carbon technology and research. This must be encouraged and supported by government, but we also need policies that help to implement advances in technology in practical and commercially-viable ways.

We need to turn brainpower into business success to keep Britain at the cutting-edge of low-carbon technology and be rewarded for our expertise in this area.

The 10 recommendations for government put forward in the report are:

Focus on technology success: use a transparent and robust assessment to establish technologies that can add value to the UK economy, taking account of existing strengths.
Firm actions not words: establish the next level of policy detail to set the framework for the private sector to commercialise technologies and encourage investment.
Leverage private capital: make 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.
Make it easier to get support: consolidate and streamline applications to public agencies for support and press for greater transparency in EU research programmes.
Maintain incentives: maintain and improve the R&D tax credit scheme to ensure companies have confidence that this vital incentive will continue over the long term.
Be intelligent about public procurement: ensure public procurement decisions are taken on a whole-life cycle basis and government uses its procurement muscle to drive demand for low-carbon products, and supports large-scale technology demonstration.
Don’t delay on infrastructure: create the right physical infrastructure, including substantial grid upgrades, to ensure the demonstration and the commercial deployment of large-scale energy technologies.
Make planning simpler: implement the 2008 Planning Act as quickly as possible. Task the Better Regulation Executive to minimise regulatory barriers to innovation for low-carbon technology families key to the UK’s economic growth.
Invest in training: ensure the UK workforce has the necessary skills to be globally competitive, attract investment to the UK and extract maximum value from international
supply-chains and global markets.
Support entrepreneurs: help ensure start-up companies have strong commercial management to bring about full exploitation of technological knowledge.

In addition the CBI has put forward three recommendations for business to encourage low-carbon innovation:

Make carbon part of core business: take steps to measure carbon use and include carbon costs in the bottom line. Clear measurement of carbon use and the reduction potential of innovation can increase uptake and give businesses a head start on competitors.
Rethink approach to innovation: embrace innovation by focusing on how frontline staff can reduce emissions and fundamentally re-think at a boardroom level the impact of the low-carbon economy on existing and new business processes.
Enable creative thinking: develop a culture of managed risk taking to aid innovation and create incentives that allow employees to experiment and innovate.

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