diff --git a/wagtail/admin/compare.py b/wagtail/admin/compare.py
index 1b5fc9a57b..47624b24d7 100644
--- a/wagtail/admin/compare.py
+++ b/wagtail/admin/compare.py
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 import difflib
 
-from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
 from django.db import models
 from django.utils.encoding import force_str
@@ -13,11 +12,7 @@ from taggit.managers import TaggableManager
 from wagtail import blocks
 from wagtail.fields import RichTextField, StreamField
 from wagtail.utils.registry import ModelFieldRegistry
-
-
-def text_from_html(val):
-    # Return the unescaped text content of an HTML string
-    return BeautifulSoup(force_str(val), "html5lib").getText()
+from wagtail.utils.text import text_from_html
 
 
 comparison_class_registry = ModelFieldRegistry()
diff --git a/wagtail/admin/panels/base.py b/wagtail/admin/panels/base.py
index 9cfa7c5184..f4ddf8167d 100644
--- a/wagtail/admin/panels/base.py
+++ b/wagtail/admin/panels/base.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
 from django.utils.safestring import mark_safe
 
-from wagtail.admin.compare import text_from_html
 from wagtail.admin.forms.models import (
     WagtailAdminDraftStateFormMixin,
     WagtailAdminModelForm,
@@ -11,6 +10,7 @@ from wagtail.blocks import StreamValue
 from wagtail.coreutils import safe_snake_case
 from wagtail.models import DraftStateMixin
 from wagtail.rich_text import RichText
+from wagtail.utils.text import text_from_html
 
 
 def get_form_for_model(
diff --git a/wagtail/utils/text.py b/wagtail/utils/text.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f219ecc5cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wagtail/utils/text.py
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
+from django.utils.encoding import force_str
+
+
+def text_from_html(val):
+    # Return the unescaped text content of an HTML string
+    return BeautifulSoup(force_str(val), "html5lib").getText()