London Mayor Boris Johnson today announced an expansion of Film London’s £1.3m budget by £750,000, which will go towards promoting and developing TV production opportunities in London.
Film London estimates the boost in funding could bring in an additional £200m worth of UK production expenditure and create up to 1,000 new jobs between 2013-16.
Speaking at Ealing Studios, the Mayor said: “We are at the dawn of a new golden age of TV production in London.
“We have an unprecedented opportunity to grow this exciting sector to deliver jobs, produce more world class British drama and, above all, make London the city of choice for TV and animation production.
“It’s time for London to fulfil its potential as the world leader and employer it’s destined to be in this field. Let’s make sure that all future Downtons are filmed on our turf.”
The injection of cash comes in the same month the UK introduces its high end TV tax credit.
According to Film London, the UK capital is now the third busiest city in the world for film-making after LA and New York. During 2010-11 the film tax credit provided approximately £150 million of support to London’s film industry.
In 2012 there were 17,604 filming days – making it the busiest year for filming since records began in 2003, and filming volume was up 21% on 2011.
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