📢 Creative Industries Sector Plan has launched
The government's new strategy to grow the UK creative industries
Hello,
A new ten-year plan to boost the UK creative sector, developed in partnership with the Creative Industries Council, was published today as part of the government's Industrial Strategy.
The Creative Industries Sector Plan outlines the government's ambition to enhance the UK’s role as a creative superpower and make the UK the number one destination for investment in creativity and creative innovation by 2035. It sets out an ambition to significantly increase business investment in the sector, from £17 billion to £31 billion.
The plan also includes a wide-ranging package of measures, including £380 million in funding.
CIC members and an advisory taskforce headed by our industry Co-Chairs, Sir Peter Bazalgette and Baroness Shriti Vadera, have spent six months working with the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to shape the plan.
Over the next decade, we'll be working closely with the government to implement the plan and monitor its impact. Our members will also continue to work on broader issues such as net zero and equality, diversity, and inclusion, while also responding to future global economic competition and security concerns.
You can download the full 80-page Sector Plan here, or keep reading for our summary.
The four key goals of the Sector Plan
1.) Ease, speed and long-term stability for doing business
🎯 Accelerate innovation-led growth, measured by increased business R&D expenditure and an increased proportion of innovation-active businesses.
🎯 Secure growth finance for creative start-ups and scale-ups, measured by increased investment capital and a reduction in businesses reporting issues accessing finance.
🎯 Build a resilient workforce fit for the future, measured by decreased skills gaps and shortages, and increased levels of training provision.
🎯 Increase trade and inward investment, measured by increased exports of creative goods and services, and increased inward investment.
2.) Boost growth in our highest potential sub-sectors
🎯 Film and TV: Strengthen our mixed film and TV ecology, backed by a BBC and public service media system fit for the future, and protect the UK’s attractiveness for domestic and inward investment.
🎯 Music, performing and visual arts: Back the next generation of British talent, unlock new growth at home and abroad, and capitalise on the opportunities from digital platforms for musicians, performers and artists to reach new audiences.
🎯 Video games: Expand our network of nimble, innovative studios and the rich pipeline of inward investment to deliver more hit titles, nurture the next generation of UK games companies and talent, and support the exploitation of games software across the economy.
🎯 Advertising and marketing: Unlock the growth potential of AI and innovative technologies, and boost exports to increase the number of renowned UK-created advertising campaigns across the world.
3.) Realise the potential of creative industries clusters
🎯 Unlock the potential of our Creative Industries across the UK’s high-potential city regions and clusters, where there are significant opportunities to boost regional economic growth and create high-quality jobs.
🎯 Build on our R&D Creative Clusters programme and Greater London supercluster.
🎯 Give six Mayoral Strategic Authorities the resources to catalyse business investment.
🎯 Work in partnership with devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to build on the support they deliver.
🎯 Support creative corridors across the UK, including supporting the growth corridor across our Northern city regions, the West of England-South Wales, and the Thames Estuary.
4.) Deliver joint commitments from government and industry, working in partnership
🎯 Strengthen our partnership with industry by relaunching the Creative Industries Council. This is a long-term plan, and the CIC and industry will continue to play a critical role in delivery.
What’s inside the Sector Plan?
The Plan outlines a wealth of targeted measures designed to help the sector flourish over the next decade. Here are just some of the highlights (for full details, download the full Sector Plan):
☑️ A new £150 million Creative Places Growth Fund, devolved to six Mayoral Strategic Authorities to tackle barriers to growth in their regions
☑️ A significant increase in UK Research and Innovation investment, including £50 million for a new wave of Clusters across the UK to accelerate R&D, taking total investment to £100 million
☑️ A £25 million Department for Culture, Media and Sport-funded Creative Futures Programme which will add five new CoSTAR Network R&D labs and two showcase spaces to drive innovation and investment
☑️ A significant increase in support for creative businesses from the British Business Bank with debt and equity finance
☑️ New screen, music and video games growth packages
☑️ A new Creative Content Exchange (CCE) to be a trusted marketplace for selling, buying, licensing, and enabling permitted access to digitised cultural and creative assets
☑️ Support for adtech businesses through accelerator programmes, which will upskill founders towards international expansion and connect them with key investors
☑️ The appointment of a creative freelance champion, to provide a voice for creative freelancers within government.
As Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy writes in the Plan’s introduction, this is just the start of a ten-year journey. Stay tuned for more updates, and please do share this newsletter with colleagues who might find it useful.
Until next time,
Rachel Wareing (Newsletter Editor) &
Carlos Grande (Editor, thecreativeindustries.co.uk)