Veritas slams UK government

The UK government's tax regime and approach to IT companies has been blamed for storage software company Veritas' scheme to halve its investment in the UK.

Veritas is setting its European HQ in Reading, but because it is scaling back investment it says it will now create just half of the 4000 jobs it had planned.

The jobs come as part of a £250 million investment over the next five years - but Veritas is threatening a further £250 million will be invested in elsewhere in Europe.

Philip Bousfield, a senior VP at Veritas said that the uncertain climate for IT was created by inappropriate taxation. He told The Times that the UK should not mirror the US over issues like taxation, since the two economies are fundamentally different. The company said that it could take further investment into Europe if the situation in the UK did not change.

Lindsey Armstrong, the European vice president at Veritas, said that limiting £100,000 tax relief on options profits to 15 staff was ludicrous, and proved that the government was out of touch with the realities of the IT industry. ®