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£50bn boost for UK creative industries

May 18, 2023

By Colin Mann

Lucy Frazer,  Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sports, has committed to growing the UK’s creative industries by an extra £50 billion (€57.5bn) by 2030.

Addressing the Enders Analysis and Deloitte Media and Telecoms 2023 & Beyond Conference in London, Frazer noted that since taking on the brief, she had introduced a draft Media Bill with reforms to level the playing field for the UK’s public service broadcasters, among other initiatives and wanted to lay out a clear agenda for the months ahead.

“To my mind, DCMS is the Department for talent and opportunity,” she declared. “Indeed our creative industries are world class. They generated £108 billion in 2021 and employ over two million people across the country. And to put things in perspective they are worth more than our life sciences, automotive manufacturing, aerospace and the oil and gas sectors combined. We are in the global age of the silver screen. We rival any country in the world at sound and visual effects, and are on track to double UK film stage space by 2025.”

“And the world over, there is demand for high-end British productions not just because of our fantastic actors and our great locations, but because of our tech know-how and production skills. The imagination of our designers, our producers, our content creators, our writers and artists is spearheading growth right across our economy. But it’s also owed, in-part, to how the Government and industry have worked together to back talent in this country and make Britain one of the best places in the world to be creative. And I am here to continue to maximise that growing potential,” she affirmed.

She noted that the Government had introduced a £1.5 billion Covid relief package that helped protect cultural and creative industries and a “highly-successful” Film and TV Production Restart Scheme that ensured the industry was able to keep making great new content despite the lack of commercial insurance to cover Covid risk, suggesting that tax reliefs had been a “huge catalyst” for growth for the UK’s creative industries.

“I have no doubt that we in Government can do more to support our creatives,” she admitted. “But we cannot simply rely on the formula for that past success. We face increasing global competition and we cannot afford to be complacent. By turbocharging growth and investment in sectors like video games, visual effects, music, fashion, film and television and more, we can retain our status as a creative industries superpower for decades to come,” she suggested.

“In order to do that we need to maximise potential. So I am committing to: Growing the creative industries by an extra £50 billion by 2030; creating a million extra jobs – all over the country – by 2030, and delivering a Creative careers promise that builds a pipeline of talent into our creative industries. And I want to work with you to deliver it,” she added.

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