As Los Angeles producers increasingly bypass Vancouver, local indie producers are headed to Europe to drum up TV co-production work and reduce their reliance on Hollywood.

First stop Monday is London for the British Columbia-U.K. Co-Production Forum, which continues in Manchester on Wednesday and Thursday.

The trigger for this week’s visit by 13 B.C. producers and five Canadian broadcasters is Britain on Apri 1 introducing a 25% tax break for scripted TV dramas and animation for foreign companies co-producing with local partners.

Liz Shorten, managing vice president of the CMPA’s B.C. branch tells Playback that Canadians and British producers are natural partners for future collaboration.

“In addition to the financial incentives at the national and provincial level, which we will review with the participants, we have such a shared history and values with the U.K., let alone the language, that means our stories will work in both jurisdictions,” she says.

Despite sharply reduced Hollywood production activity in Vancouver due to richer foreign film tax credits in Ontario and Quebec, the B.C. production centre remains buoyed by local projects like Continuum, Arctic Air and Package Deal.

So the local producers will be in the U.K. this week to reduce their dependence on offshore U.S. productions and bolster their creative ties to Britain.

Those ties continue to be laid as Lionsgate U.K., the London-based arm of the Vancouver-based indie studio on Monday picked up two British projects from author and filmmaker Ronnie Thompson: I Am Soldier, which stars Tom Hughes and Noel Clarke, and Green Street Hooligans: Underground, directed by James Nunn.

The B.C. producers delegation in the U.K. this week includes Lark Productions, Omnifilm Entertainment, Bauman Entertainment and Force Four Entertainment.