The UK government has announced £380m in funding to support innovation, access to finance, R&D, skills and regional growth across the UK as part of its Creative Industries Sector Plan.
Published this week alongside the Government’s Industrial Strategy, the plan aims to nearly double business investment in the sector by 2035, from £17bn to £31bn.
It is targeted at the film and TV, music, performing and visual arts, video games and advertising sectors.
The wider plan also includes a significant increase in support available from the British Business Bank (BBB) to invest and lend to the creative industries.
Targeted support under the Creative Industries Sector Plan includes:
- A £150m Creative Places Growth Fund for six regions outside London, empowering local Mayors to support creative businesses in their communities with access to finance, mentoring and networking opportunities to help them connect with investors and skills programmes.
- £50m for new Creative Industries Clusters across the UK to accelerate research and development, doubling investment from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in clusters to £100m. Clusters bring together universities, businesses, local and regional policymakers, and private funders to drive research, innovation and growth in the creative industries.
- £25m for five new UKRI CoSTAR R&D labs and two showcase spaces, which will develop cutting-edge technologies like those used in Abba Voyage and theatre productions such as last year’s Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
- The establishment of a Creative Content Exchange to act as a marketplace for selling, buying, licensing and enabling permitted access to digitised cultural and creative assets, opening up new revenue streams for content owners.
- A £10m investment in the National Film and Television School (NFTS) which will help to train 2,000 new trainees and apprentices over the next decade.
- A new £9m creative careers service, which will help raise awareness of opportunities and provide pathways into the sector for young people.
- A £75m Screen Growth Package supporting UK content development and international investment. This includes an enlarged UK Global Screen Fund and scaled-up BFI Film Academy to support 16–25 year olds from underrepresented backgrounds to enter the film industry.
- A £30m Video Games Growth Package, backing the next generation of start-up games studios and developers. This will drive inward investment in the sector through expansion of the UK Games Fund (UKGF) as well as new support for the London Games Festival.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “Our creative industries are powerful economic drivers in this country. By placing them at the heart of our Industrial Strategy, this Sector Plan, backed by £380m of investment, will boost regional growth, stimulate private investment, and create thousands more high-quality jobs.
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