Soho-based post-production company LipSync is raising a £3m TV drama fund through the government’s private investor Enterprise Investment Scheme.

The money will cover 10-30% of TV dramas’ budgets and LipSync expects to fund between eight and 12 high-end TV productions a year.

If successful, the post facility plans to go out into the market again to raise a further £8m.

LipSync’s move comes at a time when the industry has been campaigning for the government to introduce a 25% tax break for TV drama budgeted at more than £1m an hour.

LipSync has previously invested in TV drama partly in exchange for producers doing post-production work at the Soho-based company.

Investments to date include Birdsong, Hidden and The Crimson Petal And The White (pictured), with between £50,000 and £200,000 spent on each show.

LipSync financial director Norman Merry said: “It saves the producer having to get a minimum guarantee from a distributor or gap finance elsewhere.”

The post-production house already lends against Film Tax Relief, chipping in equity on top through its separate Valderama fund.

It is covering nearly a quarter of the budget for Blood, the new feature film from Call The Midwife producer Neal Street Productions.

Valderama discounts 90% of the Film Tax Relief, compared with up to 85% offered by banks such as Coutts.

Merry said the equity fund would not be combined with Valderama but will exist separately.

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