This year’s figure was up by 56% from £1.06bn in 2020-21 although this was a period dominated by covid lockdowns which reduced the number of live productions.

The increase was largely due to a significant rise in high-end TV reliefs which increased by 131% to £829m and now represent half of all creative sector payments made for 475 claims. This was driven largely by an increase in high-budget productions. It is also worth noting that films produced by streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime are classified for high end TV relief.  

Film relief still accounted for 31% of total payments at £517m paid out to 770 different projects. This was up 24% from £415m on the previous year but was lower than pre-covid figures of £627m in 2019-20.