“Of course we will keep tax breaks,” says the Labor Party during the general election debate for the creative industries

The British Labor Party pledged to maintain tax breaks for the creative sector during an online cross-party debate hosted by Creative UK today (June 20) ahead of the July 4 general election.

“Of course we will maintain tax breaks. We came up with the idea of ​​tax breaks early on,” said Labor shadow minister for creative industries and digital technology, Chris Bryant. Film tax credit was first introduced in 2007 under the Labor government.

He didn’t go into detail about any potential changes to current credits that Labor could implement, simply noting: “We obviously need to keep reviewing elements of them to make them as competitive as possible around the world.” . “I would argue that it has taken us quite a long time to get to the point where post-production is not lost, for example in Canada,” referring to the Conservative government’s decision in the March budget to increase the tax credit rate by 5% and remove the 80% cap on visual effects .

Lucy Frazer, Conservative Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), praised her government’s achievements in increasing film and television tax relief, which included audiovisual spending relief and independent film tax relief in the March Budget.

“We have committed to ensuring global competitiveness through our tax credits and we have committed in our manifesto, and Labor has not committed in their manifesto, to ensuring that our tax incentives for the creative sector remain competitive. “The UK is now the second most popular place in the world for filming high-end film and TV, which is a direct result of the tax breaks we introduce year after year,” she said.

Freelance support

Support for freelancers and protecting creators from artificial intelligence (AI) threats are other key discussion points.

The meeting was hosted by television producer and Creative UK board member Peter Bazalgette, who answered questions from Creative UK members for Frazer and Bryant, as well as Tim Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrat, the Lord’s spokesman for science, innovation and technology; Jack Lenox, Green Party spokesman for culture, sport and digital inclusion; and Heledd Fychan Plaid Cymru. David Bull, deputy chairman of Reform UK, did not attend as planned.

Asked about the single most effective measure they would introduce to change the funding model for the creative and cultural sectors, Frazer said: “We have a plan to grow the creative industries with an extra £50 billion, with a million more jobs. The best way to do this is to change the framework, i.e. tax incentives, to make sure we are globally competitive.”

Labor’s Bryant responded by focusing on supporting education and training, wanting to ensure every child has “an equal opportunity to pursue a career in the creative industries – one of my concerns over the last few years is that we are increasingly seeing the creative industries being increasingly dependent from people for whom it is actually a hereditary career.”

He continued, referring to the Hollywood strikes that caused drought in the UK last year: “We need to think about the model. We have 50% of people in creative industries as freelancers. Last year, partly because of events in the United States and other factors, many people were out of work for the better part of nine months, and I would like to see that by the end of five or maybe 10 years, if Labor comes into government, fewer people will rely on such an insecure work model.”

“We must replace the Apprenticeship Levy with a much more flexible Training and Skills Levy, and we must protect funding for creative arts degrees at universities,” said Liberal Democrat Clement-Jones. “All this talk by the government about Mickey Mouse degrees is incredibly damaging to our arts sectors. This is the kind of (a) culture war that seems to have involved…. Of course tax breaks are important, but it’s the skillset that’s so important.”

Lennox, of the Green Party, said: “We are talking about restoring the budget for culture, media and sport to a level similar to 2010,” adding that the Conservative government had directed a “wrecking ball” at the creative industries.

He also outlined plans to better fund local governments so they can play a more important role in supporting arts and culture.

Plaid Cymru’s Fychan echoed Lennox’s views on the need to decentralize funding, expressing concern that the creative industries are “becoming elitist”.

Lennox would like to see artists and creators have a universal basic income, but Bryant did not support this idea from the Labor Party. “It would be very easy for me to make all kinds of promises about spending money here, there and everywhere, and I sincerely wish I could,” Bryant said. “But the truth is that if we manage to form a government on July 5, we will probably have the worst possible financial hit in the history of the UK. We also have to be very responsible for the promises we can and cannot make.”

One area where Bryant would like to see a change is the studio building permit. “We also need to do something about planning. I’ve just noticed that James Cameron wants to move a lot of his work to the UK to a new studio in (Marlow) Buckinghamshire, planning for which has been abandoned. I hear this from a lot of different studio projects that say it doesn’t take one or two years to plan, but seven or eight years. This is nonsense for our economy.”

artificial intelligence

The issue of threats related to artificial intelligence for creators was also raised. “This is the most important question the government should be asking for the future, because if we don’t get the AI ​​right for creative industries and rights holders, we will see a fundamental change in their survival,” Frazer said. But she did not say that Conservatives would pass legislation to provide that protection.

“We said we would ensure that creators are protected and compensated for their work. We will do this by working with both industries, technology and creators to ensure we are positioned right.”

“Intellectual property is as important as any other type of property,” Bryant noted.

He continued: “We know we will already have to legislate on AI to some extent, even though the (Conservative) government itself has said it will adopt a voluntary code that has never come into force.”

Fychan noted: “One of the challenges we face is that (AI advances) are moving so fast that government legislation is becoming so long that it becomes outdated by the time it comes into force. I would like to see any part commit to making this a priority, but at the same time remain flexible in responding. Intellectual property is key.”

A recording of the debate will be made available to the general public online next week. Creative UK is the national membership body for the cultural and creative industries.