Incentive For Further Production In Scotland

The Scottish Government has announced a new £1.75m Production Growth Fund to encourage more Film and TV producers to the country.

The fund aims to stimulate growth in the industry by providing further incentive for major international productions to come to Scotland. There is also increased funding available for Scottish productions.

As a result, the investment will enable Scotland to compete for higher value production work, support industry growth, generate significant economic benefits and create new, high quality training and employment opportunities.

Awards from the Production Growth Fund will be made based on spend in Scotland, opportunities provided to Scottish based crew and facilities and co-production opportunities for Scottish based production companies.

Sourced from existing Scottish Government and Creative Scotland budgets, the Production Growth Fund will run over a two-year period, and is the latest in a number of incentives to increase the country's screen sector.

Commenting on the news, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "The Scottish Government and its agencies are firmly committed to supporting screen sector growth and promoting Scotland as a premier and competitive location to produce great films and TV shows.

"We are genuinely working very hard to make this happen – as underlined by the increase in public funding allocated to support screen since 2007, during a period of tough budgets.

"Scotland's screen sector has the talent and skills to deliver world-class films and attract major productions, as we have seen with World War Z, Skyfall, Under the Skin, Outlander and the much anticipated Macbeth.

"But we know that if we are to deliver on our ambitions, we need to deliver more for the sector. That is why we are working with our partners to deliver increased incentives for film and TV.

"The Production Growth Fund I am announcing today will help to attract new inward investment, further support home grown productions and will boost Scotland's economy as well as our international reputation."

Natalie Usher, Director of Screen at Creative Scotland, added that the announcement "supports our shared ambition, as set out in our Strategy Creative Scotland On Screen 2014-17, to generate the conditions necessary to enable the screen sector to grow and compete meaningfully at home and on the international stage. We want to ensure that Scotland is recognised as a key destination for UK and international productions because of its world-class talent, crews, facilities and locations."

It is anticipated that the Production Growth Fund will be open for applications by the end of October.

(JP)