Hundreds of creative businesses will benefit from more than £10 million of targeted support to attract investment and create jobs as part of the Government’s goal to grow the creative industries by £50 billion by 2030.
The announcement comes as Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer brings together more than 140 cultural and creative businesses across film, TV, fashion, music and video games at the WeCreate conference at Aviva Studios in Manchester, to celebrate the success of the creative industries across the North of England and discuss how government and the sectors can work together to maximise their potential even further.
Firms across Greater Manchester, including Broaden Films and Scoop PR, have already benefited from the first round of the government’s Create Growth Programme. Today the Culture Secretary is doubling the areas covered by the programme, announcing six new areas that will receive a share of £10.9 million for targeted business support, bringing the total number of creative organisations expected to be supported by the programme to 1,800.
The expansion of the Create Growth Programme will see creative businesses across Nottinghamshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Devon and Hertfordshire supported to access private investment and scale-up advice – to turn today’s start-up founders into tomorrow’s CEOs.
The Culture Secretary is also calling on grassroots music venues, recording studios, promoters and festivals to apply for grants of up to £40,000 to develop new revenue streams, make repairs and improvements, and enhance the live music experience for millions of gig-goers across the UK.
Addressing creative industry leaders in Manchester, Frazer said: “Today is about not only celebrating all the things that make our creative industries special, but looking ahead to the future and how we, together, can chart a course that keeps these crown jewels of our economy shining for years to come.
We’re already making progress towards the ambitious goals set out in our sector vision, unveiling millions in new funding to drive growth in our grassroots and scale ups and banging the drum for creative careers.”
From 2010 to 2019, the creative industries grew more than one and a half times faster than the wider economy and in 2021 they generated £108bn in economic value. In 2021, they employed 2.3 million people – a 49% increase since 2011. The government has identified the creative industries as one of five priority sectors to deliver future growth and the Creative Industries Sector Vision set out an ambition to grow these sectors by £50 billion by 2030.
