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According to an interview on BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend, Aardman Animation, the makers of Wallace & Grommit and Shaun the Sheep, is contemplating transferring production of its TV product from its Bristol base to an as yet unspecified overseas location, as a result of what they consider to be an unfair tax regime.

UK based films receive a 15-20% tax credit, but UK TV animation receives nil. “When a company like Aardman is considering offshoring stop-frame animation, which we are at the moment, something’s got to be wrong,” Miles Burrough, the head of Aardman TV said. “There is genuinely a crisis. HIT, a beacon of excellence in children’s animation in the UK and maker of Bob the Builder and Pingu, has just been bought by US company Mattel. Cosgrove Hall, known for Dangermouse and Avenger Penguins, is sadly no longer with us.”

Unlike their counterparts countries like Canada, Ireland and France, UK animators do not receive any government support, despite the benefits to the Treasury from the industry. “Animation is such a labour-intensive undertaking that by retaining jobs in the UK we increase national insurance receipts, tax receipts, expenditure and VAT receipts and actually a tax credit should be profitable in the long run,” Burrough said.

The full interview can be heard here, until November 13.