The cap on industry contributions to the High-end TV Skills Fund will increase to £100,000 for productions with a budget of more than £5 million per broadcast hour. For productions with budgets less than £5million per broadcast hour the cap will remain at £61,000.
The adjustment - which comes into effect on 1 September – was agreed by the High-end TV Skills Council and by the board at Pact in response to the need to increase industry funds to deliver further skills investment to meet demand, as growth in high-end TV production continues at pace.
Both caps will continue to be reviewed prior to the start each financial year, with the lower cap likely to adopt a nominal increase in April 2022, in line with the RPI (retail price index), plus an additional 2%, as agreed by industry and Pact in 2019.
Productions accessing the Government tax incentive are asked to pay 0.5% of their production budget spent in the UK – limited by the appropriate cap – into the High-end TV Skills Fund. In doing this they are supporting and investing in the growth of the HETV workforce in the UK.
The HETV Skills Fund invests all contributions in training and targeted placements that enable individuals enter the industry as well as professionals at all career stages to advance across the UK.
In return for their contribution, productions can directly benefit from some of the training and placement opportunities the fund invests in. They are eligible to receive up to 60% of the value of their contribution back through funded initiatives, including the step up programme Make a Move, progression programme Leaders of Tomorrow, new-entrant placement programme Trainee Finder, leadership and management training and mental health awareness training.
Kaye Elliott, ScreenSkills director of high-end TV, says: “Industry is booming in spite of a very challenging year, with the HETV Skills Fund now supporting more productions than ever before. It’s also fantastic to see an uplift in productions of scale shooting in the UK, providing even greater opportunities for jobs in HETV. To make sure we have a workforce that meets the demand of industry it is more important than ever that we invest in the training and skills needed across the UK. The new two-tier cap system will enable us to create even more targeted grade and skills shortage training for the benefit of the whole industry.”