Thank you for your interest in the Conservative Party's campaign to save the Home Computing Initiative (HCI). Our online petition was eventually signed by over 2,700 people and was an important part of our efforts to highlight the Government's error in abolishing the scheme

HCI was a scheme that enabled employees to hire a home computer through their workplace, paying for it in monthly instalments, tax free. It was a valuable way of promoting IT literacy among the UK workforce and before it was effectively scrapped by Gordon Brown in the Budget in March, it had been taken up by around 500,000 people, nearly 75% of whom were standard-rate taxpayers or lower.

We argued in the Commons in early May that it was vital to retain this valuable scheme. We called on the Government to take what would clearly be a more sensible option of modifying the operation of HCI rather than scrapping it. Unfortunately they showed no signs of backing down and, when pushed to a vote on this issue, voted for the abolition.

HM Opposition repeatedly raised the issue, including during the remaining stages of the Finance Bill in July, where I made one final plea to the Government to think again. But, despite our persistent efforts and considerable criticism in the media, the Government ploughed on regardless and the HCI scheme is now being wound down.

Industry representatives are now working on an alternative scheme which, because it will not enjoy the tax advantages of HCI, is unfortunately unlikely to have the same level of take up that HCI did. Nevertheless, we continue to feel that this was a battle worth fighting and thank you again for your interest in this matter.


Yours faithfully


Mark Francois
Shadow Paymaster General