Wales Office Minister welcomes Budget boost for creative industries

18 Mar 2015 05:53 PM

Alun Cairns: "The Budget provides a fantastic platform for our creative industries to grow."

Wales Office Minister Alun Cairns said yesterday:

Today’s budget provides a fantastic platform for our creative industries to grow. Our measures to support film and television, video games and visual effects could be transformational for Wales.

I hope that more Welsh production companies take the opportunity to invest in this exciting sector.

Already there are 11 companies in Wales benefiting from the skills development fund, supporting the film, high-end TV, animation, games and visual effects sectors. Extending the scheme will help boost this thriving sector in Wales.

Measures to help the creative industries in Wales:

• The Skills Investment Fund will be boosted by £4million to support the development of world class skills and training in the TV, animation, video games and visual effects sectors. Eleven companies in Wales currently take advantage of the Skills Investment Fund.

• The film industry in Wales will benefit from an increase in film tax relief to 25%. The rate is currently set at 25% for the first £20million and 20% thereafter.

• Video games developers in Wales will benefit from a new UK wide £4million Video Games Prototype Fund to enable start-up games businesses to develop their ideas into working prototypes.