Monthly Archives: December 2021

Round up – production in the UK

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Paul Evans

Anyone looking for a good roundup of the UK production landscape – investments, studios, facilities, etc, may find this article in KFTV useful. A lot of it has been covered here already, though I’m aware I need to post more … Continue reading →

Posted in Film & TV industry data, Film & TV industry policy, Tax incentives, UK studios | Tagged | Leave a comment

Flexible savings trials to bridge the freelance pensions gap

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Paul Evans

I’m going to simply cut-and-paste from the press release from Nest Insight here as I think it says everything that needs explaining well enough: Nest Insight has launched two new pilots to trial flexible savings systems that are designed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Freelance working, Freelancer rights, Pensions | Tagged , | Leave a comment

BFI Screen Business report details the scale of the UK production boom

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Paul Evans

Anyone who has any doubts about the size and scale of the UK production boom can have a look at the latest BFI Screen Business report (if the annual Pact Census most recently published in September wasn’t convincing enough!). The … Continue reading →

Posted in BBC, Economics, Factual & Entertainment sector data, Feature film data, Film & TV industry data, Film & TV industry policy, High End TV data, Public Service Broadcasting, Quotas, Skills & capacity, SVoD, Tax incentives, UK studios | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What do employers need to do to retain talent?

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Paul Evans

It’s something of a recurring theme from the Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), but all of the research (including their own work with Autonomy and Survation – [pdf]) point to a need to pay people better, treat them with … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Employment, Employment Law and Rights, Long hours, Low pay, Management, Mental Health, Productivity, Wellbeing, Work-life balance | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Shinfield Studios planning permission granted.

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Paul Evans

Shinfield Studios in Reading is another addition to the UK’s ever-mushrooming production capacity (for details of other recent developments see the UK Studio Watch tag on this site). Located very close the M4 and nearly 5 miles away from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film & TV industry data, Film & TV industry policy, Skills & capacity, UK studios | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Production Safety Passport

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Paul Evans

In the new year, the union will be doing some promotion for the Health & Safety dimension of our work. This will include the re-constitution of the Bectu H&S committee that stopped meeting during the pandemic. Each division can send … Continue reading →

Posted in Health & Safety, Trades Unions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A distinctly British focus for TV programmes

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Paul Evans

David Tennant has been questioning some of the arguments around demands for ‘distinctly British programmes (or ‘lovely jubbly telly‘ as John Whittingdale didn’t say recently). “Is there some inherent criticism within this plea for more Britishness?” he said in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Diversity of representation, EU & Brexit, Film & TV industry policy, High End TV data, Public Service Broadcasting, Quotas, Regulation, SVoD, Tax incentives | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Tax avoidance and Umbrella Companies

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Paul Evans

I’ve been to a presentation from HMRC about a website that they have launched that is aimed substantially at people who are being asked to work through an Umbrella Company. It tells them how they can avoid charges of tax … Continue reading →

Posted in Employment Contracts, Employment intermediaries, Employment Law and Rights, Employment status, Gig economy workers, IR35, Loan arrangements, Tax | Tagged | 1 Comment

Knowing how much retirement income you need

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Paul Evans

Bectu is going to keep nagging freelance members to get a pension because freelancers in the UK generally have shockingly underfunded retirements. There are lots of other posts on this site about pensions if you want to read into this. … Continue reading →

Posted in Freelance working, Low pay, Pensions, Wages and Pay-rates, Welfare and benefits | Tagged | Leave a comment