Chancellor Gordon Brown may be forced to U-turn over tax-exempt home PC schemes

The government looks set to do a U-turn over its much-derided Budget decision to scrap tax-exempt status for staff PCs through the Home Computing Initiative (HCI) scheme.

According to a report in today’s Financial Times, chancellor Gordon Brown telephoned Confederation of British Industry director general Digby Jones over the weekend to assure him that the Treasury was looking again at its plans.

Brown told Jones that the decision over HCI had been made because some employers and staff were abusing the scheme to buy other electronics goods rather than using it as a means to learn PC skills. A new scheme to replace HCI is under discussion.

Spying an opportunity to make political capital, the Conservatives have set up an online petition at www.conservatives.com/saveourhomepcs to save the HCI.

"In the last two days I have spoken to the CBI, the TUC and a number of employers,” said shadow chancellor George Osborne. “All agree that the Chancellor is making a huge mistake.”