Everyone across the four nations of the UK should be able to experience and create the widest range of moving image storytelling. Economic growth and access to jobs should be felt UK-wide.
Screen culture has a huge role to play in shaping our collective identity as a country. It can help us explore the rich diversity of UK life across every nation and region.
But we know that the cultural and economic opportunities on offer are unbalanced. The range of exhibitors and stories on screen varies considerably between different areas of the UK, and people can face barriers to access both in terms of proximity to venues and digital connectivity.
We also know that screen businesses and infrastructure are concentrated within London and the South East of England. That makes it harder for others to access education, skills and training opportunities. It is also harder to pursue careers in the sector, establish sustainable businesses and develop local networks.
As a result, the full economic benefit of screen sector activity is felt unequally across the UK. We must address this imbalance of opportunity. In the course of the next 10 years, we will make sure that all our funded activity works together to provide UK-wide opportunities to experience, create and work in film, TV and the moving image. We will support the Government’s levelling-up agenda. And we will coordinate closely with screen agencies in regions and devolved nations to align our funding strategies.
Within our organisation we are also committed to looking at opportunities to grow our people presence across the UK. To support this, we are adapting our recruitment practices to actively seek out and promote a UK-wide recruitment approach. This is already bearing fruit with a number of senior appointments made outside the South East. Similarly, our Screen Archive of the Future research will widen public access to the BFI National Archive outside of London and the South East.