A share of the revenue streaming services make from subscription fees should be paid into a fund to support British high-end TV production, an influential group of MPs has said.

In a new report, the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) committee urged the government to improve support measures for producers while safeguarding the creation of distinctly British content.

It follows an inquiry into the UK TV and film industry which examined the effects of the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV.

The report noted how “vital” dramas such as Adolescence are to the country’s “identity, national conversations and talent pipeline”, which they say is now “under threat”.

It is “time for streamers to put their money where their mouth is”, the report read, suggesting that streaming companies pay “5% of their UK subscriber revenue into a cultural fund to help finance drama with a specific interest to British audiences”.

Chair of the CMS committee, MP Dame Caroline Dinenage, noted how recent “big box-office blockbusters made in Britain have showcased the UK’s world-class film and high-end television industry like never before”.

“But the boom in inward investment of recent years now risks crowding out our many talented independent British producers,” she said.

She added: “While streamers like Netflix and Amazon have proved a valuable addition for the industry and economy, unless the government urgently intervenes to rebalance the playing field, for every Adolescence adding to the national conversation, there will be countless distinctly British stories that never make it to our screens.”

Adolescence, created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who is charged with killing a female classmate.

This week, it became fourth most popular English-language series in Netflix’s history with 114 million views.

A Netflix spokeswoman said: “The UK is Netflix’s biggest production hub outside of North America – and we want it to stay that way.

“But in an increasingly competitive global market, it’s key to create a business environment that incentivises rather than penalises investment, risk taking and success. Levies diminish competitiveness and penalise audiences who ultimately bear the increased costs.”

The Association for Commercial Broadcasters and On-Demand Services (COBA) said a levy risks damaging streamers’ investment in the UK.

Coba executive director Adam Minns said: “Especially in this economic climate, a levy risks impacting existing content budgets for UK shows, jobs, and growth, along with raising costs for businesses.

“Ironically, it could actually damage public service broadcaster dramas by reducing co-production budgets at streamers.”

He added pressure on domestic production stemmed from the real terms decline in the TV licence fee.

The report released on Thursday noted how last year there was a 27% decrease in the number of domestic high-end TV productions made in the UK and a 25% fall in spend.

The calls for greater help come after Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky told the BBC last month that the industry was in crisis, and that public service broadcasters including the BBC and ITV could no longer afford to make high-end British drama.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) said: “We acknowledge the challenges facing our brilliant film and TV industry and are working with it through our industrial strategy to consider what more needs to be done to unlock growth and develop the skills pipeline.

“We thank the committee for its report which we will respond to in due course.”

The report also noted while the introduction of tax breaks for independent British films, and for film and TV studios in England may have helped, it was not a “silver bullet” for solving many of the issues facing British producers.

As well as providing greater support and resources for UK TV production workforces, the report also suggested that lawmakers should consider cutting VAT on cinema tickets as well as doing more to meet the challenges posed by AI.

Paul W Fleming, general secretary of Equity, which represents British performers, said the government should “heed the call” for the licensing of creative works in all cases where they are used to train artificial intelligence models.

“AI is being built illegally by stealing Equity members’ life’s works,” he said.

Big tech firms “must be held to account”, he added, “brought to the table and made to pay creators what they owe.”

The cross-party committee recommended the government and British Film Institute (BFI) should launch a national awareness campaign, highlighting the employment opportunities offered by film and high-end TV, and “the range of skills the industry requires”.

It stressed how the industry “benefits hugely from the flexibility afforded by a predominantly freelance workforce” and therefore more should be done to “support freelancers when they are out of work”; such as the introduction of a minimum hourly wage or guaranteed basic income.

Head of industry union Bectu, Philippa Childs, said: “We welcome this timely and incisive report from the committee which identifies many of the urgent challenges currently facing the industry and its workforce.”

She added: “It’s essential that the industry does not become too skewed towards large streamers, which risks the homogenisation of content and the loss of much of the UK’s unique and distinctive output.”

A source close to the Universal UK project has told the BBC what fans can expect from the new park being built in Bedford.

James Bond, Paddington and Lord of the Rings are among the brands set to appear at the park, the BBC had learned.

Rides and attractions related to Harry Potter are not expected to be included.

On its website, Universal Destinations has claimed “it is too early” to know what attractions will be at the park.

Construction on the site at Kempston Hardwick, Bedfordshire, is expected to start next year if planning permission is granted.

While the source is confident that these concepts are happening, the theme park is not expected to open until 2031, which means some plans could change.

Universal aims to provide distinct attractions at each of its parks, with the Bedfordshire one set to feature unique attractions not found elsewhere.

The BBC has been told that other themed zones and rides at the park will be inspired by Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Minions.

The source insisted “contracts have been signed” and it would be unlikely things would change.

“At this point it will be little details they tweak, like ‘Let’s use a different shade of paint on that Lord of the Rings castle’,” they said.

The locations can be seen on the map of what the site could look like, although specific details, such as the Hill Valley clock from Back to the Future, have been obscured.

Rides have already been designed, with the majority planned as indoor attractions.

Rollercoasters based on Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Minions are among the few rides that will not be under cover.

There will be a stunt show based on 007, similar to the The Bourne Stuntacular in Florida.

“If you look at Epic Universe, the newest park they’re opening in Florida, a lot of those rides are indoors, too,” the source said.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told BBC Breakfast the theme park would be an opportunity to show off “great British creations to the world”.

“These are things like James Bond, Paddington Bear, these are things like Harry Potter. We’ve got so much to be proud of,” she said.

Notably, a Harry Potter-themed area will not be part of the park, as it is situated just a 40-minute drive from the Warner Bros Studio Tour in Leavesden, Hertfordshire.

The source told the BBC that “watertight exclusivity contracts” made it difficult to include Hogwarts in the plans, although it could be reconsidered alongside other brands such as Nintendo or Wicked if the park were to expand in the future.

“Warner Bros has the UK rights to Harry Potter attractions. They tried to find a way round it but couldn’t. That could change in years to come, though,” the source said.

Warner Bros Studio Tour has been invited to comment.

Universal Destinations and Experiences is expecting 8.5 million visitors a year at the park.

Transport links close to the site will require significant improvements to accommodate the new arrivals, which the government says it is committed to.

Universal previously described the site as “an ideal location with convenient, fast rail links to London and London Luton Airport”.

The borough’s mayor, Tom Wootton, a Conservative, said: “Bedford is the perfect place for this investment – well-connected, full of talent and ready to grow.

“We’re proud to be chosen as the home of Universal in the UK. I’m delighted that our residents and communities will benefit in the years and decades ahead.”

Luton Airport is hoping to double annual passenger numbers to 32 million by 2043, after Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander recently approved its expansion plans.

Visitors to the park who land at the airport could catch a train at Luton Airport Parkway on the Midland Main Line line to Wixams, which will be Universal’s nearest station.

That is currently expected to open next year with two platforms, but Universal said it would upgrade the station, potentially with extra platforms, to meet visitor demand.

The East West Rail line is currently being built to link Oxford and Cambridge. Although it is not expected to be fully operational until the 2030s, Universal has said there would be a new railway station near the park.

A car park is in the conceptual art of the park. Drivers would access it via the A421, which was closed last year after it was flooded during heavy rain.

Universal plans to install new slip roads on the A421 to meet increased demand.

Maximo Peña had been coming to the Jet Set nightclub every single Monday for the past 30 years.

This week, excited to see a concert by the popular Dominican singer Rubby Pérez, he took his wife and his sister. Now all three are buried beneath the rubble of the collapsed discotheque, after the roof caved in part way through the performance, leaving at least 184 dead.

“I haven’t heard any news about any of them,” says Shailyn Peña, Maximo’s 17-year-old daughter as she sits on a wall outside the devastated venue.

“It was just another Monday night for them. In fact, my dad invited my mum to come too but at the last minute she decided not to go. It was a blessing in disguise.”

Behind her as she speaks, a team of rescue workers is meticulously going through the rubble inside the building, listening for the slightest sound of a survivor beneath them. They have been joined by Israeli and Mexican search teams and are using sophisticated heat-seeking equipment to try to locate anyone still alive.

Shailyn tells me her cousin is one of the rescue workers, sifting through the debris for her own uncle, which brings her peace of mind that a relative is inside, doing everything in her power to try to track him down.

But the uncertainty and the endless wait for information are becoming unbearable, Shailyn says.

“I feel the urge to just go in there and push aside all the rocks and pull him out. But as much as I want to, I really can’t. I just have to sit here and wait it out.”

For their part, the authorities are doing what they can to keep the public informed, delivering grim updates on the number of dead, which has risen steadily with every passing hour. At regular intervals, a team emerges from the site carrying a body covered by a blanket on a stretcher.

Occasionally, although more rarely now, someone is brought out alive, bolstering the hopes of the relatives. The emergency services insist survivors can still be reached in the debris.

“Nothing can be ruled out,” said the Director of the Emergency Operations Centre, Juan Manuel Mendez. “We are going to go over every inch of the rubble here to give the families of those caught up in the disaster some kind of closure.”

The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, declared three days of national mourning, a reflection of the scale of the tragedy unfolding at the site.

Among those confirmed to have lost their lives in the accident were some well-known national figures including Pérez himself, two much-loved former baseball players, Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco, and a regional governor. And alongside them, scores of merengue music-lovers and Pérez fans also died in the collapse.

For as long as there is a feasible chance of success, the authorities’ focus remains on the search and rescue operation. However, eventually the questions will turn to the cause of the collapse and government investigators will have to provide meaningful answers to the families in due course.

One theory is already circulating outside the venue. Many are pointing the finger of blame at a fire at the nightclub around two years ago. Some fear the blaze structurally weakened the site or that any repairs carried out were insufficient or not up to code.

The owner of the Jet Set nightclub, Antonio Espaillat, delivered a video message via social media expressing his condolences and those of “all the Jet Set family”, to the victims’ relatives.

He also insisted that he and his team were co-operating “totally and transparently with the authorities” over the disaster.

Shailyn Peña has heard about the fire at the nightclub and is among those who thinks it played a part. However, for now she has bigger worries. Despite the family’s efforts to protect them, her younger stepsisters found out that their father and mother were trapped under the rubble from other children at school.

They are “terrified”, she added.

It is Shailyn’s birthday on Thursday, a day she would normally celebrate alongside her father, stepmother and aunt.

Instead, she must endure it in the worst possible circumstances, waiting for news of her missing loved ones, caught inside the worst such tragedy in her country’s modern history.

Many of Thursday’s papers lead on President Donald Trump suspending his slate of punitive tariffs while singling out China.

The Financial Times says Trump showed the “first signs of retreat” when he ordered his 90-day pause.

For the Times, Trump performed a “dramatic U-turn” when he said he wanted “fair deals with everyone”. The paper says it was a radical change in tone from the night before, when he told Republican senators that countries were “kissing my ass”.

The main editorial in the Daily Mail says the president’s mind may have been changed by a fire sale in US government bonds.

“Donald Ducks” is the Sun’s headline.

“Great WAR of China” is the Daily Mirror’s, as it describes Trump as “erratic” and “making a new gamble”, with his elevated 125% levy on Chinese goods.

The Daily Telegraph’s leader column says Trump is taking the world on an increasingly bizarre and dangerous rollercoaster ride. The paper warns of “considerable implications” for UK pensions and mortgages if turmoil on the bond markets continues to push up government borrowing costs.

The i Paper reports that ministers are considering bringing forward announcements planned for the Spending Review in June aimed at protecting the steel, medicines and car industries.

The Daily Express leads on the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urging the prime minister to, in the paper’s words, ‘maximise the UK’s Brexit freedoms’, in the face of global economic turmoil. In an interview with the Express, Badenoch says Labour appears to be “just sitting back and letting it happen” instead of reaching out to countries in a Pacific trading bloc, whose British membership she negotiated as a minister.