Call for tech training tax credits

Chasing the business vote ahead of the election

By BBC News Online's Bob Trevelyan at the BCC conference in London

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has called on the government to encourage electronic business by introducing tax credits for technology training and resisting further regulation.

"The next government above all must resist the urge to regulate unnecessarily," BCC director general Chris Humphries said.

"Already we see emerging a rush to regulate and legislate for these new technologies, with the result that much of the regulation and codes of practice are leading to duplication and confusion."

The call came as leaders of the UK's three main political parties stepped up the battle for the business vote.

In presentations to the BCC annual conference, the prime minister Tony Blair focused on his government's economic record while Conservative leader William Hague said a Tory government would free business from red tape and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy put joining the euro at the top of his party's agenda for business.

Broadband call

The BCC said the next government must address e-business issues by:

• Making a serious commitment on training and skills. It said there was a "strong case" for a tax credit linked to training or investment in information and communications technology

• Tackling the "threat" to e-commerce in the UK posed by limited access to broadband services

• Permanently increasing the 100% capital allowance for small and medium-sized companies for hard and software

• Ensuring government departments are "e-competent" enough to support business effectively

• Scrapping the IR35 legislation and working with business "to define who is and who is not allowed to call themselves self-employed".

• Resisting the temptation to over-regulate a fledgling industry and stopping introduction of overlapping regulations.

"Over the last year more and more small businesses across the country have realised the benefits of getting online," said Jenny Searle, director of the government's advisory service UK online for business.

"The challenge now is to encourage these firms to move beyond a more basic website towards true online trading, dealing directly with their suppliers and customers through e-commerce."

The BCC conference is expected to be the last major business event before the general election.