In her first major speech on media and TV at the convention, the Culture Secretary will discuss how television has the power to foster greater social cohesion, improve trust in media and instil pride in place.

She will challenge the industry to showcase new voices, cultures and communities on screen, allowing people to feel they have a greater stake in the rich cultural fabric that makes up the UK’s national story.

Nandy will point to the success of hit shows such as Peaky Blinders, proving that captivating programmes made outside of London, often using local casts, crews and production companies to create jobs and spur economic growth, are possible.

She will also highlight the need to improve the representation of people from working-class backgrounds, with recent surveys revealing only 8 per cent of those currently working in TV identify as such.

In her speech, the Culture Secretary is expected to say: “For all of the efforts made by many of you in this room, it should shame us all that television is one of the most centralised and exclusive industries in the UK. Because who tells the story determines the story that is told. So I want to ask, if you aren’t commissioning content from every part of the country – towns and villages as well as major cities – why not?”

“Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not. And if you’ve moved jobs and people and content, but the heads of departments and commissioners are still in an office in London, do something about it. Eight per cent – the proportion of working class people in TV. Twenty three per cent  – the proportion of commissions made by companies based outside of London. Thirty per cent – the fall in trust in media over the last decade. None of this is inevitable.”

“Frankly, if you don’t know why the film industry is so attracted to the beauty of Sunderland, or why the arts sector is buzzing in Bradford, or the potential to TV of the Welsh Valleys, it is most likely because you’ve never been there. And you have no right to call yourself a public service broadcaster.”

“I know it isn’t easy. The costs are short term, the payoff is long term. But there is so much at stake and it is my belief that an industry that belongs to the nation is an industry that will not just survive but thrive. That is what I want to see. We will do everything we can to put rocket boosters under your efforts, but that effort in the first place belongs to you all.”

“Through us doing our bit and you doing yours. With a new relationship based on respect for one another. A television industry that leads the world and is the pride of all of Britain. Thriving well into the latter half of this century. That is what we will build, together.”