creative d Daniel Mouawad Chief Executive eng 1an Spelthorne Borough Council Council Offices Knowle Green Staines-upon-Thames TW18 1XB

2nd August 2018

Dear Daniel,

Creative England is the national agency dedicated to growing the creative industries and the talent that drives them. With offices in London, Bristol, Manchester, Hertfordshire and Leeds, Creative England supports international and domestic film and TV production to shoot in England and works to improve the environment for filming in England. We collaborate closely with the British Film Commission, to attract inward investment from film and TV production.

Creative England would like to extend their support to the current planning application to Spelthorne Borough Council by Shepperton Studios for their upgrading and expansion plans of the Studios.

The value of film and TV production to the UK continues to grow. Inward Investment in film has grown by 92% over the last five years and high-end TV by 162%. The latest BFI figures show production spend has reached a record high. In 2017 inward investment reached £1.9bn for film - a 23% increase on the previous year and £684m for high end TV production- a 27% increase on 2016.

On a more local level, Creative England estimates the average amount a production would spend (before multipliers), when filming on location per day is in excess of £42,000 on a major feature film and in the region of £22,000 for a high-end television drama. Some people believe that the film industry is too centred on London and the South-East, but the reality is that the producers of blockbuster films are limited in the facilities they can use due to the need for studio space, crews and sound stage availability. In fact, without these large studio spaces, like Pinewood and an expanded Shepperton, these large budget inward investment films simply could not choose the UK as the site for their productions.

In 2017, £1.9 billion was spent on film production in the UK. Some of this investment is centred around production facilities in the South-East, but much of it goes towards benefiting the country's creative industries sector as a whole. You will of course be more than aware of the indirect benefits from location filming, such as The Mummy

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The impact to both the national and local economies is clear to see.

Over the last 6 years, Creative England has supported over 5,000 productions to film on location in England (outside London) including 450 feature films and over 500 TV dramas leading to an estimated economic impact of nearly £500 million to the English Regions. We continue to see high demand for studio and build space in the UK as the global market for content continues to grow.

However, despite the UK's success in attracting international productions in film and high-end TV, the supply of studio space is not fully in-step with demand. The UK has created an extremely competitive offer for inward investment, but the lack of adequate studio space to house some of the larger productions remains a significant threat to our ability to compete globally.

Shepperton Studios has been home to some of biggest US productions to shoot in the UK over recent years and plays a fundamental role in the UK's ability to offer world class studio facilities. The increased studio and sound stage capacity, and the jobs and investment this will bring, will benefit creative industries all across the country.

This planning application directly responds to the shortage of studio space in the UK that Creative England has witnessed over the last number of years and we would urge you to approve the much-needed expansion plans of Shepperton Studios.

Yours faithfully,

Caroline Norbury CEO, MBE Creative England

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