News story: Creative sector receives record boost of £700 million pounds

Britain’s world-leading creative sector has benefited from over £700 million pounds of support from government in the last year, official statistics showed today.

The award-winning TV series “The Crown” and award-winning film “Lady Macbeth” are among the productions to have made use of the High-End TV and Film Tax Reliefs respectively.

Creative Sector Tax Reliefs were introduced to help UK businesses in these highly skilled and innovative sectors thrive at home and abroad.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the government’s announcement to expand its support for the creative sector. The reliefs enhance the UK’s creative sector industries, including video games, animation and high-end television.

Mel Stride, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General said:

From film directors to video game developers, UK creative leaders are championing British culture and innovation both at home and abroad.

This tax relief provides vital support to our world-class creative industries as they continue to boost growth across the country and create top quality entertainment that we can all enjoy.

The creative industries employ two million people across all parts of the UK. These tax reliefs are helping to ensure creative sector companies can continue to hire people and boost local economies.

Creative Industries Minister Matt Hancock said:

The UK’s creative industries are one of our biggest success stories. They play a vital role in shaping the UK’s image and reputation at home and abroad, and through initiatives like the tax relief scheme, we are creating the right environment for this dynamic sector to flourish and thrive.

Britain’s creative industries are growing faster than the rest of the economy and we want to keep it that way.

Amanda Nevill, CEO of BFI, commented:

Worth £4.3 billion to the economy, UK film is the country’s fastest growing sector, employing over 66,000 people.

The UK is one of the world’s most important production hubs and the tax reliefs for the screen industries have enabled this unprecedented growth across the country, creating jobs and supporting businesses from Belfast to Bradford.

Vitally, they have also allowed creativity to flourish and our world class filmmaking talent to shine with productions from Trainspotting and Lady Macbeth through to Wonder Woman and Game of Thrones.

John McVay, Chief Executive of Pact, said:

The creative sector tax relief has played an important part in attracting inward investment, and helping to grow the successful UK TV production industry, with benefits to all parts of the UK. It has helped our members stay competitive in an ever-growing global marketplace.

Over 2,070 films, 295 videogames and 205 high-end TV productions have benefited from the tax reliefs since their respective introductions. The figures also show for the first time that 1,750 theatres have benefited from the support available.

There are currently seven different reliefs available to the creative sector; film, high-end TV, animation, videogames, children’s TV, orchestra and theatre.