Are tax breaks value for money?

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On Monday this week, while most of the UK was celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and republicans commiserated with each other that support for the abolition of the monarchy has fallen from 18% of the population (where it has been pretty steadily for 20 years) to 13%, I was on the radio.

BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours asked the question whether the British film industry was value for money, and wheeled out many speakers in support of the UK film industry. I was asked to explain my concerns about tax breaks in general and ones aimed at creative industries in particular.

The BBC very kindly left my interview almost entirely intact. I think it is one of my more succinct arguments, so if you are interested, go and listen.

• You and Yours, the full 55 minutes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jggl6
• You and Yours, the Nicholas Lovell segment on video game tax breaks (starts about 30 minutes in): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jggl6

The counter-arguments basically seem to be “but France and Canada have tax breaks, so we should have them.”

Did I convince you? Can you make the positive counter-arguments to my piece?

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