Hundreds of creative businesses and projects across the UK are to receive government funding to help them grow as part of a major boost to the economy – marking the first step of the Government’s Sector Plan for the creative industries.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy brought together more than 250 creative businesses and cultural leaders at the The Glasshouse International Centre for Music. As part of its modern Industrial Strategy, she set out how the Government will work together with the sector to increase growth and investment, starting with a £60 million package of government support. This includes investments for start-up video game studios, grassroots music venues and creative businesses to boost British music and film exports, which will facilitate investment and innovation in communities, in turn supporting businesses and employment. UKEVENTS was present at the Summit and represented by Rachel Parker from EIA and Anna Green from EVCOM. UKEVENTS will continue to develop engagement with the Government’s Creative Growth Strategy to ensure the very strong creative skills used in staging all forms of events are fully recognised and supported.
Growth is the number one mission of the Government’s Plan for Change. Today’s summit was the first step towards delivering the Creative Industry Sector Plan. It will set out the enormous growth potential of the sector and where the biggest opportunities are at home and in new markets abroad.It will identify what key barriers are currently holding back the sector’s growth potential, and government and industry’s shared commitment to overcoming them, laying the groundwork for the publication of the full Creative Industries Sector Plan in the spring.
At the summit, the Culture Secretary also announced that the priority regions for Creative Industries are the North East, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, West Midlands, Greater London, West of England, South Wales, Glasgow, Edinburgh-Dundee corridor, and Belfast.
Alongside this, the Government will provide additional funding, to be agreed as part of the Spending Review, to six Mayoral Combined Authorities (North East, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, West Midlands, West of England). This will maximise the strengths of these areas to deliver growth and builds upon progress to provide an attractive business environment and encourage strong, continued investment in the creative industries for years to come.
As the Government ramps up support for the sector, the Culture Secretary also announced that the Government will bring forward changes so that shorter apprenticeships are available from August 2025, recognising the particular needs of the creative industries, as one of our first steps towards a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said:
“From film and fashion to music and advertising, our creative industries are truly world-class and play a critical role in helping us deliver on this Government’s mission to drive economic growth in all parts of the UK.
Our £60 million funding boost will support creative and cultural organisations across the UK to turbocharge growth by transforming local venues, creating jobs, supporting businesses and spreading opportunity across the country.
But this is by no means the limit of our ambitions, which is why the creative industries are at the heart of the forthcoming Industrial Strategy and will continue to play a key part in this Government’s Plan for Change.”
The Government will create the most attractive business environment to encourage strong, continued investment in the creative industries for years to come. The Government is also announcing positive changes to the way the British Business Bank, UK Research and Innovation and skills policy will prioritise the Creative Industries. The British Business Bank, which supports £17.4 billion of finance to over 64,000 smaller businesses, has committed to increase its support for creative businesses to access the finance they need to grow.
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