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Exclusive: British Culture Secretary Lucy Fraser said a 40% tax break on independent films would bring balance to a film sector that has swung too much towards big-budget films in recent years.
Conservatives yesterday unveiled relief over films with budgets of less than £15 million ($19 million), which have been celebrated as “game-changing” by figures ranging from Christopher Nolan to Ridley Scott to Gurinder Chadha.
Fraser said the government's latest raft of tax breaks, which she expects to be worth up to £1 billion in additional relief over the next five years, is a “continuation” of a decade of work and will level the playing field between big businesses. -Budget of American films such as Barbie Which was filmed in the UK and smaller independent fare.
“We support big productions and big international films on British soil, but we need to do both and help independent films too,” she said while sitting down with Deadline at the National Theater in London.
“We have listened to the sector,” Fraser added. “It's become really clear that although people of course want to make films here, what matters is the end result. And that's what we've done – as a government, we've made the end result better for production companies across the country.
Fraser rejected the idea that foreign filmmakers would now flock to the UK to make cheaper films because of the convenience, and said the vast majority of her consultations were with UK trade body Pact, the BFI and major local independent producers. Pact has been advocating for independent film relief for seven years, the panel said.
“We've been holding roundtables with small independent British filmmakers, and what I've heard is that people want to make films here but haven't been able to deliver on the bottom line,” Fraser added. “They were going to Türkiye or Italy, and their next projects were in danger of being lost.”
With fares for new works softening and visual effects becoming more relaxed alongside independent film standards, Fraser emphasized that there was also plenty in yesterday's budget for larger films.
She's bullish on the sector, which she says has “significantly doubled in size” over the past decade, since the lucrative film and TV tax credit was first introduced.
“Thriving” sector?
Fraser was criticized last month by the head of the Pictou broadcasting union, Philippa Childs, for describing the sector as “booming” when around two-thirds of freelancers are currently out of work.
She said she “understands the challenges” the independent workforce faces, adding that tax credits are one of the best weapons at her disposal.
“I can help stimulate industry to generate production by providing tax breaks that allow people to invest more here,” she added. “So what we did was create a framework to improve employment opportunities for the self-employed by allowing huge amounts of investment through tax credits.”
Furthermore, Fraser noted that it is “working with industry on measures to improve the lives of freelancers.” She cited Creative UK's report on discrimination against the self-employed workforce, and ongoing work with the government's innovation department to examine how to protect workers' rights from the risks of generative AI.
Toothless regulator?
Dan Wootton (left) and Laurence Fox
GT
Fraser has been in office for just over a year and has broad powers spanning all television, media and sports networks.
She was speaking to Deadline in the week that right-leaning network GB News was again slammed by Ofcom over “unequivocally misogynistic” comments made on air by actor Laurence Fox, which were the catalyst for the resignation of controversial presenter Dan Wootton.
Ofcom has opened more than a dozen investigations into GB News over the past year – a number of them relating to politicians from Fraser's party hosting news programs – but has rejected the idea that the regulator needs more power.
“I saw Ofcom a couple of weeks ago and they haven't asked for more authority,” she revealed to us. “I'm delighted that GB News has chosen to be regulated by Ofcom as it clearly is [Ofcom’s] The task now is to carry out this organizational mission, which it is doing in all fields.”
Fraser was also heavily involved in her Department of Culture, Media and Sport's mid-term review of the BBC, which concluded, among other things, that the corporation needed “diversity of thought and opinion to be better reflected in its decision-making”.
The BBC's new boss, Samir Shah, touched on this in his first email to all staff earlier this week when he urged diversity of class and thought in BBC news coverage, and Fraser said the BBC takes this responsibility “very seriously”. “.
In areas such as its coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas, which has come under some criticism over the past month, she stressed that the BBC had an “additional responsibility to ensure the accuracy of its coverage” because of its “extraordinary funding model”. Our position as a “beacon of our national values”.
