Film studios face blockbuster property tax hike

Television and film studios are facing massive increases in property taxes, threatening to derail plans to establish the UK as a global hub for the entertainment industry. Prestigious production facilities, including Shepperton Studios and Warner Brothers Studios Leavesden, are being threatened with some of the largest rises in business rates of any type of property following recent revaluations. Large studios are braced for rises of 30% from April, the maximum increase allowed due to the cap on the levy. Surveyors have warned that successive increases of a similar magnitude are likely. Government records show that Shepperton and the Warner Brothers site have been hit with a fivefold rise in their rateable value, while Pinewood Studios has been hit with a fourfold increase. But the biggest victims could be the new studio developments, which would not benefit from the business rates cap. It is feared the tax hikes could put off overseas investors. The FT (£)