U.K. Government Plans to Grow Creative Industries by £50 Billion

The U.K. government has revealed ambitious plans to grow the creative industries by £50 billion and support a million more jobs by 2030, with £77 million of new funding for the sector.

Among the initiatives, four new state-of-the-art research and development facilities will be set up to drive the next generation of screen technology and on-set virtual production, with £63 million of new industry investment announced on top of the government’s £75.6 million investment. UKRI’s Convergent Screen Technologies and performance in Realtime (CoSTAR) program is expected to create more than 820 new jobs across the U.K.

The government will invest at least £50 million in the next wave of UKRI’s Creative Industries Clusters program, helping to identify and support at least six new clusters specializing in creative subsectors, helping entrepreneurs and businesses in these areas innovate with new technologies, secure investment and access global markets.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is planning to increase the budget of the Create Growth Program by £10.9 million, bringing it to a total of £28.4 million until 2025. The increased funding will enable it to double the number of regions it covers to twelve and support 2,000 businesses to commercialize their ideas and access resources, knowledge and private investment to scale up.

Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said: “The creative industries are a true British success story, from global music stars like Adele and Ed Sheeran to world-class cultural institutions like the National Theatre. These industries have a special place in our national life and make a unique contribution to how we feel about ourselves as a country. We want to build on this incredible success to drive growth in our economy—one of my key priorities—and to ensure that U.K. creative industries continue to lead the world long into the future. Backed up with significant new funding, this ambitious plan will help grow the sector by an extra £50 billion while creating one million extra jobs by 2030.”

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: “The imagination and ingenuity of British designers, producers, content creators, writers and artists are spearheading growth right across our economy. The government is backing our creatives to maximize the potential of the creative industries. This Sector Vision is about driving innovation, attracting investment and building on the clusters of creativity across the country. And from first days at school to last days of work, we will nurture the skills needed to build a larger creative workforce to harness the talent needed for continued success. Working with the industry this vision is helping the U.K. creative sectors go from strength to strength—providing jobs and opportunities, creating world leading content and supporting economic growth across the country.”

Jeremy Hunt, chancellor of the exchequer, said: “Our creative industry isn’t just about the glitz and glam of the red carpet in Leicester Square. It brings in £108 billion a year to help fund our public services, supports over 2 million jobs, and is world renowned. That’s why we’re backing it as an industry to drive our economic growth, keeping the U.K. at the top of the world’s cultural charts with a multi-million pound boost. This includes £50 million to grow clusters of creative businesses in locations all over the country, and more funding to help start-ups scale-up and to turn creative entrepreneurs into CEOs. New investment will help the next Adele, Ed Sheeran or Sam Smith break into overseas markets, alongside financial support for new video games studios and hundreds of grassroots music venues. The government will continue to offer competitive creative industries tax reliefs to incentivize production of film, TV and video games in the U.K. This sector vision builds on more than £230 million in government spending on the creative industries since 2021, which includes £75.6 million to build the largest virtual production research and development network in Europe to put the U.K. at the forefront of advancements in visual effects, motion-capture technology, and AI for the screen industries and live performance. Today the government has announced regional research labs will be based in Yorkshire, Dundee and Belfast with a national lab in Buckinghamshire. The program will be supported with an additional £63 million investment from industry. Alongside investment, the Sector Vision commits the government to a new creative careers promise—a pledge backed by a comprehensive package of actions to open up more opportunities, particularly for young people, to pursue careers in the creative industries.”

Sir Peter Bazalgette, industry co-chair of the Creative Industries Council, said: “The creative industries are coming of age with this ambitious policy framework for economic growth and cultural value. Our Sector Vision, developed jointly with government, champions R&D-led innovation and future skills, drawing on the talent of all our communities. It also promotes positive impact on health and wellbeing, the environment and Britain’s global reach. Helped by the government’s new spending commitments, the work starts now to deliver on this growth agenda.”