Channel hopeful on HCI reversal
Channel players continue to make a stand against the forthcoming end of the Home Computing Initiative
With three days to go until the Home Computing Initiative (HCI) is scrapped, the IT industry has been lobbying hard to get the UK government to reverse its decision to axe the scheme.
However, a Treasury representative told CRN that it was unlikely the government would make a U-turn on its decision.
“We’ve announced a firm intention to proceed. Last year only 25 per cent of households in the lowest income group took up an HCI scheme compared to 93 per cent in the highest income group. Evidence has shown that HCI has been used to buy things other than PCs, such as games consoles.
“These two things led us to think that we should withdraw the scheme as it stands and then sit down and discuss how we could target the lower income groups and the unemployed. I don’t know what form a new scheme would take and there is no time scale for implementing it either,” added the Treasury representative.
However, channel players remain hopeful. Vivien Quinn, director for the HCI Alliance whose founder members include Microsoft, BT and Intel, said: “HCI is making a real difference. More than 500,000 PCs have been delivered to UK citizens via the scheme; 60 per cent of these have been acquired by blue-collar workers and 75 per cent by employees who pay the standard rate of tax or lower. We urge the government to reconsider its decision.”
As CRN went to press, the HCI Alliance was in talks with the Treasury.
Rod Tonna-Barthet, sales director at Siemens Financial Services, said: “We believe this is poorly thought through legislation, rather than deliberate legislation. If the government had carried out an estimate on the effects of abolishing the scheme, then we probably wouldn’t be in this situation now.”