UK animators in plea for tax breaks Animation UK, which represents producers including Aardman Animations and Astley Baker Davies, has written to George Osborne, Chancellor, warning him that Britain is losing its best animation talent, and calling for tax breaks before the industry is wiped out altogether. The sector is "not seeking handouts to get a competitive advantage," but needs to be able to compete with animators overseas, particularly Ireland and Canada, where tax breaks and funding supply up to 50pc of budgets and create "a distorted market place we cannot survive in," it said in a letter to be delivered to the Treasury today. "We are looking for a fiscal environment that allows us to compete on a level playing field with the rest of the world," it said. We've seen a UK industry that produced 83pc of its content in England slip to less than 23pc in the five years up to 2008. We have moved from world leaders to an industry in crisis in just a decade... we are losing our talent pool, intellectual property is held outside the UK, and all associated revenues are supporting economies outside the UK. In addition to the lure of the animation industries in Canada and Ireland, countries like Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates have approached British animation houses with offers of free facilities, golden handshakes and tax holidays if they move wholesale. "We don't want to leave the UK, but when you consider production costs, it's very tempting," said Oli Hyatt, chairman of Animation UK and co-founder of Blue-Zoo. Last year, Aardman warned it may have to halt UK production of its famous stop-frame animations because of costs.