Ealing Central and Acton MP Dr Rupa Huq has hosted the parliamentary launch of a landmark report highlighting the economic and cultural importance of Ealing and west London’s screen industries, which generate £74.5 billion in turnover and support thousands of jobs.
The report, West London Screens: The Hidden Engine of the UK’s Convergent Screen Industries, was unveiled at an event in Parliament on Monday (1 June 2026), bringing together ministers, MPs and leading figures from across the film, television and creative sectors.
Produced by Professor Emily Caston of the University of West London and commissioned by West London Business alongside nine west London councils including Ealing, the research maps the region’s screen sector for the first time. It identifies 6,842 companies and 82 studios operating across west London, describing the area as the strategic heart of the UK’s screen industries.
West London has a long association with film and television production. Ealing Studios, now located in Ealing Southall constituency, is the world’s oldest continuously operating film studio, while productions ranging from Love Actually and About A Boy to Motherland and Big Brother have all been filmed locally.
Speaking at the launch, Dr Huq said: “It was brilliant to bring together leading industry figures who voiced sectoral challenges with top Parliamentarians including the tax minister who is able to do something about the plight of the creatives involved in west London’s screen economy.
“The term ‘world-beating’ is so often over-used but in this case it’s genuinely the case.”
Industry leaders and ministers attending the event included Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Dan Tomlinson MP, Department for Culture, Media and Sport Parliamentary Private Secretary Jack Abbott MP, and British Film Commission chief executive Adrian Wootton OBE.
Mr Wootton told guests that the UK currently hosts more film, television, advertising and games production than anywhere else in the world, adding that more stars are filming in Britain than in Los Angeles.
The report argues that strengthening west London’s long-established creative cluster will be key to sustaining growth across the UK’s wider screen sector.
