Written evidence submitted by Screen England
(arts 146)
We are writing to submit Screen England's response
to the recent call for evidence regarding the enquiry into "Funding
of the Arts and Heritage". Our submission makes particular
reference to "the impact of recent changes to DCMS arm's-length
bodies—in particular the abolition of the UK Film Council".
1. In the DCMS announcement of 26 July 2010,
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt proposed "abolishing the UK
Film Council and establishing a direct and less bureaucratic relationship
with the British Film Institute. This would support front-line
services while ensuring greater value for money. Government and
Lottery support for film will continue."
2. Screen England would firstly like to
state that the UK Film Council (UKFC) provided valuable expertise,
coordination and leadership across the cultural and commercial
film agendas, and there will be significant challenges faced by
the film sector if it is to attempt to operate without a central
coordinating function. The UKFC was also able to focus funding,
particularly outside London, to ensure that Lottery money was
spent to create both public value and commercial growth. Through
its strong relationship with the Screen Agencies and its core
funding, the UKFC was able to enable many millions of pounds of
private, public and European funding and investment into the countries
creative industries and front line services provided by the Screen
Agencies. In the absence of the UKFC it would be a tragedy for
the country if the valuable work they have begun were not to continue,
albeit in a more cost effective form.
3. It is clear that the landscape of public
funding for the creative industries is changing. The announcement
of the proposed abolition of the UKFC comes alongside the replacement
of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) with Local Enterprise
Partnerships (LEPs), the details of which are yet to be determined.
Together these changes will have direct impact on the structure
of support for the creative industries across the UK, in particular
on the support for the Screen Agencies which serve the UK's creative
industries.
4. The importance of these commercial creative
industries cannot be underestimated. Widely recognised as a significant
growth area for the UK economy moving into the digital age, together
they contribute £60 billion a year, and represent 7.3% of
the UK economy, comparable to the Financial Services sector. They
play a central role generating significant profile for the UK
abroad, at a time when technology is offering new platforms, distribution
mechanisms and revenue opportunities for the creative content
industries.
5. The UKFC set up the nine independent
Screen Agencies in 2002 under the network of Screen England, to
help it distribute its funds and nurture talent across England.
Since then these agencies have grown and diversified to work across
the full range of creative industries, encompassing talent development,
production, audience development, skills and supporting businesses
across film, television, games and new media. The agencies have
developed significant experience in developing and growing the
creative industries outside London. The agencies are small and
effective; they contain key staff with in-depth industry knowledge,
expertise, networks and contacts. They already work closely with
the commercially focused private sector in linking together expertise,
ideas and talent.
6. With their umbrella body, Screen England,
they are currently in the process of re-configuring and consolidating
the way in which they work. They are well positioned to provide
expert business support to creative companies; they have a wealth
of experience across the creative industries and have become adept
at raising and combining public and private investment. They form
a bridge to the commercial entertainment industry for local companies
and make it their business to be knowledgeable on current business
models and technology developments in the industry.
7. As well as nurturing film talent at a
grass roots level and stimulating inward investment for film production
which in turn boosts England's local economies, the agencies play
a key role in:
— delivering business support (between
2006—2009 provided practical support, including skills,
investment and expert advice to more than 13,500 SMEs);
— securing public and private investment
(over a three year period they raised £78m of investment
into the England's creative sectors);
— encouraging international development
(each have worked with external partners such as UKTI to assist
creative industry companies in their local area to take their
ideas to the global marketplace); and
— supporting convergence (each have been
actively engaged in ensuring that creative talent is fully equipped
to exploit the impending shift to new technology).
8. As the Screen Agencies re-structure around
a more cost effective model of developing businesses and commercialising
projects, it is important to ensure that the financial support
is not halted altogether for this sort of valuable activity. There
is a danger that the loss of the leadership and funding that was
provided by the UKFC will create a real vacuum out of which it
will be difficult to ensure a proper strategic model for creative
industry development and growth outside London.
9. The Screen Agencies have grown to become
a product of the market in their area, evolving over time to occupy
the bigger footprint of the wider creative industries, not `film'
alone. UKFC money has underwritten this, but now the companies
which the Screen Agencies work with and represent no longer see
themselves to be restricted to the space of "film" alone.
Previous Governments have never addressed the issue of how to
work effectively with a sector of SMEs by providing a clear delivery
mechanism for supporting creative businesses. The Screen Agencies
have been both opportunistic and responsive, and we believe that
there is now an opportunity for Government to take the foundations
we have laid and build on them to move forward with a broader
approach.
10. Since they were set up, the Screen Agencies
have used the RIFE Lottery funds allocated to them from the UKFC
to leverage another £50 million of investment into creative
industry development for England. If the abolition of the UKFC
were to spell the loss of this funding altogether, it would create
a very big hole in the creative industries. UKFC money has often
been awarded by the Screen Agencies as seed corn funding, which
enables creative businesses to go on to leverage further revenue
and move to the next level. Removing access to this seed corn
funding would be damaging to the growth of the creative business
on a local level, impacting on the creative industries as a whole.
11. However, this is also a time to grasp
the opportunity to re-balance the relationship between production
and culture in Lottery funding, an area which the Screen Agencies
have argued the need to address to UKFC for a number of years.
Yes, there needs to be an emphasis on the use of film subsidy
to achieve economic benefits, but there also needs to be a focus
on using funds to achieve broader cultural benefits, and this
is something that we feel has not been maximised.
12. The latest reduction in annual grants
from the UKFC to the Screen Agencies led to an unavoidable impact
on assistance for Festivals and Exhibition Venues. As local authority
budgets continue to be pressured, this area of cultural investment—arguably
the area most deserving of public support towards film—will
struggle to find additional resources. The UKFC had the wrong
balance between exhibition and industrial film. We would argue
that public money needs to be for public benefit, and there needs
to be an infrastructure for cultural impact that can generates
commercial benefits whilst also providing social or community
value. For example three of the Screen Agencies are delivering
a Lottery funded Rural Cinema Pilot Scheme in Wiltshire, Shropshire
and North Yorkshire over the next three years, which will take
digital projection equipment out to hard to reach areas to enhance
access to culture, whilst strengthening social interaction and
reinvigorating community participation at the same time. Also,
talent development needs to have a higher priority, and we need
to be able to invest in the next generation of talent at a grass
roots level across the country, outside of London. The Screen
Agencies agree that this is the way forward, and this is a new
opportunity to expand on talent development whilst addressing
the fragility of local film festivals, screening venues and mixed
arts venues.
13. With the UKFC no longer in existence,
and the structure of LEPs not yet determined, it is imperative
that any future restructuring of funding should incorporate a
strong recognition of the creative industries, so that this vital
sector can continue to grow, to protect jobs and revenue, and
to play its part in helping the UK out of recession. As we move
into an increasingly digital future, we believe it is the Screen
Agencies, or whatever they evolve into, that are best placed to
continue to deliver this support. Their services respond to constant
change in the needs of the local area's businesses, the pace and
complexity of which is especially great in the newer areas of
the creative digital economy.
14. Operating at a local level means interventions
and Government policy can be more flexible and responsive/reactive
to the needs of all sectors and markets, and decisions can have
a greater and more immediate effect. It is vital, therefore, that
any change in funding or structures does not lead to a loss of
locally-nuanced delivery. Instead, the RSAs can offer a network
of business-led, sector-driven solutions, which Government can
build on.
September 2010
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