Spending on R&D by the biggest UK R&D companies rose by 6% in 2007 (to £21.6bn) according to figures published on Monday by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
The annual R&D Scoreboard, published in collaboration with BERR, also shows that the UK’s 88 biggest R&D investors grew their R&D by 10.3% over the previous year whereas their global peers averaged a 9.5% increase (Ed: the biggest 88? Weird number to pick – presumably the top 85 or the top 90 don’t give quite such a good PR result …)
It’ll take a couple of years to see whether this led to a rise in R&D tax claims as well – there’s a 2+ year lag between spend and HMRC results, because R&D tax relief claims can be made by amended return, so the figures aren’t final for at least 2 years after the end of the accounting period – and HMRC’s systems don’t allow for a quick and easy total.
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Expect to see some very different figures in the next year or so as a result of the legislative changes in time limits that occurred in April 08. A lot of companies were filing catch-up R&D claims for 6 years at a time, especially in the financial services sector who had historically been lax about this (hence the big increase there).
Additionally the current global financial situation may well push many companies into a loss-making position at which point there will be no benefit in them claiming under the Large Company R&D scheme and for companies where R&D is not a core competency, as a result their declared R&D could easily disappear from their accounts.