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Leading British film and TV studios are facing huge hikes in property taxes, prompting fears that such an increase in business rates could threaten investment in new facilities and could even torpedo the industry’s success. Studios have called on the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to adopt a more lenient approach or for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to intervene.
UK film studios, including Pinewood, Warner Brothers Studios Leavesden and Twickenham Film Studios, are facing significant increases in property taxes, with several prestigious production facilities being threatened with some of the largest rises in business rates of any type of property. The VOA has redrafted UK studios’ “rateable values,” an assessment of the amount a property would rent for if it were available on the open market, and rateable values are used to calculate business rates, a tax on non-domestic properties. The higher the rateable value, the higher the business rate.
Representatives for the studios are due to meet with the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) this week to set out their concerns. The changes have dismayed studio chiefs and developers, who believe it will be a spectacular own goal for the UK government, which has worked to promote growth in a thriving £6.3B production sector through tax breaks and skills investment.
There is a view that business rate hikes could not be coming at a worse time, as studios grapple with high energy costs. Industry insiders said higher property taxes would also threaten investment in new facilities at a time when studio space is at a premium.
Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of the British Film Commission, said: “Following the Valuation Office Agency’s publication of the draft Non-Domestic Rates Revaluation List, the British Film Commission is actively engaged with business rates specialists, the studio sector, and government to work through the detail and implications to support a satisfactory outcome for all parties. To this end, a meeting has now been diarised between the VOA and the studios’ business rates representatives.”
The VOA added: “A film or TV studio’s new rateable value will reflect changes in rental values from 2015 to 2021. Since 2015, the growth in streaming services and attractiveness of producing in the UK has led to an increase in rental values. We are engaging with industry representatives on the valuations.”
