Open Letter to the Film Commission

              We are the working crew of the United Kingdom film and television industry: Gaffers, Grips, Sparks, Script supervisors, SFX, Props, Camera Assistants, Sound Recordists, Video, DIT, Art directors, Construction, Locations, Greens, VFX, Stunts, Costume, Standbys, Make-up artists, Riggers, Transport, Runners, Caterers,  and Production staff. We are writing because the work is leaving, and the people doing it are watching it go.

The global market for film and television production has been contracting in value for several years, and the decline has not stopped. In the first quarter of 2026, worldwide production spending fell 6% year on year, and the number of productions that began shooting fell 7%.

The United Kingdom has held a share of that shrinking pool for a generation because of two things: our crew base, and a tax incentive that was internationally competitive. The first is still here. The second is no longer enough.

It would be easy to read the headline numbers and conclude the UK is winning. High-budget spend here rose in 2025, but that growth sits in a handful of large studio productions and masks what is happening beneath it. In the first quarter of 2026, UK production spending fell 22% year on year.

What productions are comparing

The Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit pays a headline rate of 34%, but because the credit is itself taxable, the effective net benefit to a production is approximately 25.5%.

Hungary offers a 30% cash rebate. Spain offers between 25% and 50% depending on region. Ireland offers a 32% credit that is paid as cash and is not taxed, with an 8% uplift taking lower-budget feature films to 40%.

These are not rebates productions might one day consider. They are the rebates productions are actively choosing now, on projects that ten years ago would have been ours by default.

What we are asking for

1. Raise the effective UK incentive. Raise the headline AVEC rate so the net cash benefit reaches at least 30%, closing the gap with Hungary and bringing the UK back to parity with our nearest competitors.
2. Expand the Independent Film Tax Credit. Expand support for mid-budget British film by increasing both the budget ceiling and the cap on qualifying spend together.
3. Offset the National Insurance increase. Recognise the cost of the April 2025 employer National Insurance rise to 15%, which has materially increased the cost of employing UK crew, and introduce targeted relief for audio-visual production payroll.
4. Commit to long-term certainty. Commit to a stable, multi-year framework so that productions greenlit in 2026 can budget against 2029 rates with confidence.

What is at stake

On the most recent industry survey, crew reported an average of six months since their last job. Every production that shoots in Budapest or Madrid instead of Leavesden or Belfast is not an abstract economic statistic. It is lost income, lost momentum, and a gradual erosion of the skills base that makes the UK attractive in the first place.

The British Film Commission has long argued for a more competitive incentive regime. We are asking them, publicly and with our names attached, to take this case to government and argue for it harder. We are asking the Chancellor and the Secretary of State to act in the next fiscal event, not the one after.

We are the people who build the sets, light the scenes, record the sound, and dress the actors who make British screen production what it is. We have no shareholders. We have no lobbying budget. What we have is each other, and our names on this letter.