UK Govt investing £6m in creative industry training

Today UK Chancellor George Osborne made his Autumn statement on the country’s finance and economy, confirming a £6 million investment in training for video game, film, television and animation companies.

The addition to the existing Skills Investment Fund will provide entry-level and professional-level training for up to 3,300 people working in the creative industries, and according to Government has been created to aid the sectors in competing at a global level.

Further analysis of the details reveals that the investment ‘could’ break down as follows:£500,000 of the £6 million pool will be devoted to games, with a view to training 500 people. Meanwhile film gets a £1,000,000 share, TV receive £900,000, and animation benefits from £800,000, meaning the games industry will receive the smallest investment.

“Our creative industries are worth over £36 billion a year at the latest count," said Creative Industries They are a real success story and a key part of our economic growth strategy. But they need to make sure that they can continue to compete in the global marketplace – which is hugely competitive and constantly evolving. This new £6m investment will make sure that our creative industries have people with the right skills to make sure they stay at the top.”

More details on UK games industry tax breaks, however, were not included in the spoken Autumn Statement, which focused largely on issues like health, the wider economy, transport and fuel. However, news has emerged about 25 per cent relief rate in the written version of the statement published today.

However, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has confirmed that details on the final design of the new tax reliefs will be delivered via a draft legislation to be published on December 11th.

The Autumn Statement traditionally focuses on the progress made on matters address in the previous March’s UK Budget, where in 2012 games industry tax breaks were confirmed.

Image credit: BBC website Autumn Statement live feed.