Companies in Britain have reported a surge in R&D spending. Last
year, 366 companies listed on the British stock exchange spent a total of
£7.1 billion on R&D, an average increase of 9 per cent. This compared
with an average increase of 2 per cent by the world’s 200 biggest spenders
on R&D. The figures appeared last week in the 1994 UK R&D Scoreboard,
compiled annually by Company Reporting, a consultancy in Edinburgh.
But British companies still appear over-generous with their dividends.
International rivals in the top 200 spent treble the amount on R&D that
they gave out in dividends, whereas British companies gave out twice as
much in dividends as they spent on R&D.
