Creative Industries
(Clacton) (Con)
1. What fiscal steps he is taking to support creative industries.
(902053)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer ()
At the spring Budget, the Government announced a package of tax
reliefs for our world-leading creative industries worth £1
billion over the next five years, including a 40% relief on
business rates for eligible film studios in England and enhanced
tax reliefs for visual effects.
As we know, the UK’s cultural offer is world-beating and,
particularly through the performing arts, the UK projects soft
power across the globe. While welcoming the progressive tax
breaks for our incredible film industry, it would appear that our
far-reaching, high-end television offer has been left behind in
the recent Budget. Does my right hon. Friend have plans to
redress this deficit to ensure that the UK remains first on
screens around the world?
No one knows more about high-end TV than my hon. Friend. Whoever
said that politics is showbusiness for ugly people was absolutely
wrong in his case. I will take away what he says and consider
high-end television as a potential future Budget measure.
(Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
The Chancellor will be aware of the award-winning film “The
Windermere Children”, which talks about the legacy of those
Jewish children who survived the death camps in central Europe
and made a new life for themselves on the banks of Lake
Windermere at Troutbeck Bridge. For the last several years, there
has been an ongoing exhibition on their legacy at Windermere
library, and now we look to build a lasting memorial alongside a
rebuilt Lakes School at Troutbeck Bridge.
Will the Chancellor be interested in meeting the families of the
Windermere children, and those behind the new build and the
provision of a new lasting memorial to their legacy, at
Windermere at some point in the foreseeable future?
That is a very tempting offer, and I will see whether my diary
permits me to visit the hon. Gentleman in his constituency. I
have not seen the film, but I have seen a film on a holocaust
theme called “The Zone of Interest”, which is a remarkable
British-led film that I thoroughly recommend to him.
