Assessing the Creative Industries Sector Strategy

Assessing the Creative Industries Sector Strategy

The UK Government has unveiled a significant milestone in its support for the creative industries with the publication of the Creative Industries Sector Plan. This ten-year framework aims to double business investment in the sector from £17 billion to £31 billion by 2035, making the UK a global leader in creative industry growth and innovation.

The plan encompasses a series of key interventions aimed at boosting R&D and innovation, access to finance, trade and exports, skills and job quality, creative places, and data and evaluation.

**Increasing Creative Industries R&D and Innovation**

The plan commits to significantly boost business investment in innovation, targeting frontier creative sub-sectors such as Advertising and Marketing, Film and TV, Video Games, and Music, Performing and Visual Arts. To facilitate this, a new Creative Content Exchange will be created to act as a marketplace for selling, buying, licensing, and enabling access to digitized cultural and creative assets, supporting innovation and collaboration.

**Access to Finance**

The plan aims to improve access to finance through targeted interventions that help overcome market failures and de-risk private investment via mechanisms such as blended finance, leveraging public investment to unlock private capital.

**Trade and Exports**

The sector plan includes commitments to increase exports and trade by supporting creative companies to expand internationally, with Europe and North America being primary creative services exports destinations, and Asia remaining an important destination for creative exports.

**Skills and Job Quality**

Addressing skills gaps is a critical pillar of the plan, with measures to enhance skills development and improve job quality within the creative workforce, ensuring the sector can grow sustainably and attract talent.

**Creative Places**

The government supports regional growth and creative clusters, aligning with place-based investment approaches integrated within the wider Industrial Strategy. This includes facilitating economic clusters and growth corridors to unlock productivity and innovation regionally.

**Data and Evaluation**

Building on the UK’s world-leading position in creative industries data, the plan pledges to improve access to official statistics and harness existing data from sources like the Office for National Statistics to fill current gaps. There will also be a review of Standard Industrial Classification codes to better capture emerging creative sectors such as Video Games and Music.

In addition, the plan prioritizes established and emerging markets for the sector, with Europe and North America being primary creative services exports destinations. Asia remains an important destination for creative exports. One approach the Government has committed to supporting is the development of creative corridors in places like the North of England, the Thames Estuary, and the West of England-South Wales.

The plan includes multiple interventions to increase creative industries R&D and innovation, such as funding for the AHRC's CoSTAR initiative, a second round of the Creative Industries Clusters programme, and measures to boost technology adoption. The development of new industry-recognised training and a new Skills Passport will help workers make visible their skills and competencies to employers.

The Government also intends to appoint a freelance champion to represent the interests of self-employed workers in the creative industries. Moreover, a Creative Places Forum will be established to ensure best practice is shared across the country. The UK Government's Industrial Strategy includes the Creative Industries Sector Plan as a ten-year framework.

Finally, the new £4bn Industrial Strategy Group Capital initiative from the British Business Bank offers an important source of scale-up finance for small and medium sized creative businesses across the country. The Creative Places fund, worth £150 million, will be made available to six Mayoral Combined Authorities in England.

The skills challenges facing the creative industries are a persistent issue, with 65% of hard-to-fill vacancies due to skills shortages, compared to 41% in all sectors. The plan reflects a growing body of creative industries data and evidence, including research from the AHRC-funded Creative PEC and Research Partners. The plan aims to improve access to official statistics on the creative industries, including by harnessing existing ONS data sources where regular sector-specific data is not currently published.

[1] HM Government (2021) Creative Industries Sector Deal. Retrieved from

1. The UK Government's Creative Industries Sector Plan aims to double business investment in the sector from £17 billion to £31 billion by 2035.
2. The plan targets frontier creative sub-sectors like Advertising and Marketing, Film and TV, Video Games, and Music, Performing and Visual Arts for significant boosts in business investment in innovation.
3. A new Creative Content Exchange will be created to facilitate innovation and collaboration in the creative industries.
4. The plan intends to improve access to finance through targeted interventions that help overcome market failures and de-risk private investment.
5. Europe and North America are primary creative services exports destinations, while Asia also remains an important destination for creative exports.
6. Addressing skills gaps is a critical pillar of the plan, with measures to enhance skills development and improve job quality within the creative workforce.
7. The Government supports regional growth and creative clusters, focusing on economic clusters and growth corridors to unlock productivity and innovation regionally.
8. Building on the UK’s world-leading position in creative industries data, the plan pledges to improve access to official statistics and harness existing data to fill current gaps.
9. The plan supports the development of creative corridors in places like the North of England, the Thames Estuary, and the West of England-South Wales.
10. The Government intends to appoint a freelance champion to represent the interests of self-employed workers in the creative industries.
11. The plan includes multiple interventions to increase creative industries R&D and innovation, including funding for the AHRC's CoSTAR initiative and the second round of the Creative Industries Clusters programme.
12. The skills challenges facing the creative industries are persistent, with 65% of hard-to-fill vacancies due to skills shortages, compared to 41% in all sectors. The plan aims to improve access to official statistics on the creative industries, including by harnessing existing ONS data sources where regular sector-specific data is not currently published.

Read also: