The British Government has outlined plans to provide an additional £1 million to the UK Games Fund to extend the program into 2020.

This is part of the UK's 2017 Budget, which offers support to the UK games industry in a number of ways. This includes plans to invest £21 million in "technology hubs" in major cities across the country.

Most of the government's investment will go into better education for computer science. £84 million is being set aside to ensure there are over 8,000 qualified computer science GCSE teachers in secondary schools across the country, for example.

Maths will also receive a funding boost, with schools offered £600 for every extra student that chooses to take Maths or Further Maths at A Level. £20 million will also be offered to further education colleges to prepare for new T-Levels, which focus on learning technical skills.

Research and development budgets are also set to increase, with R&D expenditure to grow by £2.3 billion, and the R&D expenditure credit rate will reach to 12% on January 1st 2018.

Extra funds

"We are pleased to see that the government has announced a further £1 million to extend the UK Games Fund until 2020, a scheme that has enormously benefited early ideas and new companies," said Ukie CEO Jo Twist.

"It was good to see improvements to existing important schemes, such as an increase in R&D tax credits and the rise in the investment limit of the EIS scheme, something we and others have called for previously.

"The measures announced today show that the government is committed to small businesses around the UK that are innovation driven, such as our sector."

A £1 million investment in the UK Games Fund is significantly lower than the £23.7 million suggested by ITV chair Sir Peter Bazalgette in a recent review of the UK's creative industries. Bazalgette wrote that "under its current funding constraints and the operating model agreed with government the Fund has to turn down many good quality applications."