The UK Screen Alliance has published a manifesto for the policies it wishes to see the next government pursue after the UK General Election on July 4.
The organisation representing post-production, VFX and animation studios has called on the next government to enact the VFX tax credit uplift of 5% proposed in the Spring Budget 2024 which will take the relief to 39%.
UK Screen Alliance also wants the government to bring forward the implementation date for the VFX tax credit to January 2025 instead of the planned April 2025.
It also wants the government to remove an exclusion for Generative AI from the VFX tax credit proposal which it says will cost jobs rather than create them.
UK Screen Alliance is also calling for an exclusion for VFX costs from the 80% cap on eligible expenditure in the new Independent Film Tax Credit, which was announced in the Spring Budget for films costing up to £15m.
Other policies included in the UK Screen Alliance manifesto are:
- · Securing the future of the NextGen/AIM level 3 16-18 Extended Diploma in Games, Animation and Visual Effects Skills.
- Further increasing the flexibility of T Levels placements to allow more employers to offer them.
- Reforming the Apprenticeship Levy to cover employers’ running costs for providing placements and to fund other forms of training.
- Funding further waves of skills bootcamps in the creative sector and reducing bureaucracy and delay in the bidding process.
- Introducing workplace exchange programmes to increase the quality of teaching at all levels of education by providing tutors with real experience of current working practices and incentivising industry professionals to become part-time tutors.
- Removing the Immigration Skills Charge from Skilled Worker Visas in priority sectors.
- Retaining the Graduate Visa route and continuing access to the Creative Visa for workers employed by VFX companies.
- Refraining from capping overall visa levels.
- Preventing Channel 4 from operating its own in-house post-production services.
- Reviewing the contractual terms offered to post-production and VFX suppliers by independent producers, who have been commissioned by the regulated broadcasters, to foster a more stable investment environment for supply chain employers with fairer commercial practices.
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