Government accused of spinning UK IT sector figures

Inward investment in the UK has reached record levels, with figures boosted by activity in the IT sector - but industry experts believe that government policies have had little to do with it.

At a conference in London for leading UK and US entrepreneurs, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown welcomed figures from the Invest in Britain Bureau (IBB) which claimed that the UK had received more investment in the last year than ever before.

The IBB survey found that 27 per cent of all investment was in the high-tech sector, the largest single category, and cited projects from Computer Associates, Ericsson, Intel and Microsoft.

Chancellor Brown said government policies on tax and competition regulation, as well as the UK's bridging position between the US and Europe, has been the catalyst to the growth in investment.

However, Thomas Power, chief knowledge officer at ecommerce consultancy Ecademy, said the investment had little to do with government policy.

He told silicon.com: "They're just using old data to justify the fact that they're not in the euro. This, along with the RIP Bill, IR35 and taxation on share options, will discourage high-tech companies from coming to the UK."

Ecommerce lawyer Mark Lewis, partner at law firm Tite & Lewis, said: "We have seen inward investment but it's had little to do with government policy - the Electronic Communications Act has been a disappointment and the RIP Bill shows the government is getting the balance between regulation and free markets very wrong."

The Chancellor also announced that £1bn will be spent on refurbishing UK science facilities to help nurture innovations. But industry figures and rival politicians said the move is an attempt to stem the brain drain of high-tech talent out of the UK.

A spokeswoman for the Conservative Party said the government was merely throwing money at a problem of their own creation. She told silicon.com: "A combination of many policies - from taxation and bureaucracy to IR35 and RIP - have conspired to drive the IT industry out of the country."

The British Chambers of Commerce said the investment, next to other government policies, showed a distinct lack of coherence.

A spokesman said: "On one hand they're talking about a brain drain, and on the other they are making it hard for skilled IT workers to stay in the country."

The Chancellor also announced a partnership between Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, although a Cambridge University spokeswoman denied any knowledge of the deal.