Clause 36
Finance (No. 2) Bill
9:30 am
Theresa Villiers (Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Treasury; Chipping Barnet, Conservative)
I should like to emphasise that the clause concerns qualifying co-production companies. As we have heard, providing an attractive framework for co-production is vital if we are going to encourage an indigenous British film industry. There is a dual purpose to the film tax break: to encourage the big US producers to make films here, and to ensure that home-grown talent can also make films. They are dependent on co-productions to raise the money to get a project off the ground, so I encourage the Government to make absolutely certain that theirnew framework provides the right conditions for co-productions to flourish.
Such co-productions are often dependent on the Government’s successful negotiation of co-production treaties with countries throughout the world. I urge the Government to press ahead with negotiations of further treaties with film-making destinations such as South Africa, and other countries with increasingly vibrant economies that could provide valuable co-production partners for the British film industry.