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UK Govt: Creative sector key to Industrial Strategy

October 14, 2024

By Colin Mann

The next generation of British industry has been fired-up and readied to reignite the UK’s industrial heartlands and kickstart economic growth, as the Government launches the first Industrial Strategy in seven years.

Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves have published a green paper designed to kickstart delivery of the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy. They say the strategy will drive long-term growth in key sectors that is sustainable, resilient and distributed across the country.

Announcing the eight growth sectors will be the focus of the Strategy, alongside naming the new Industrial Strategy Advisory Council’s chair, the Business Secretary has promised to ‘give investors a ten year plan to choose Britain’.

The key sectors the government will focus its modern Industrial Strategy are on advanced manufacturing; clean energy industries, creative industries; defence; digital and technologies; financial services; life sciences; and professional and business services.

Reeves said: “I have never been more optimistic about our country’s potential. We have some of the brightest minds and greatest businesses in the world. From the creative industries and life sciences to advanced manufacturing and financial services. This Government is determined to deliver on Britain’s potential so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off.”

Sky Group CEO, Dana Strong said: “We welcome the decision to prioritise the Creative Industries in the government’s industrial strategy. There is a unique opportunity for the UK to be a global powerhouse of creative production. If together we seize the moment, the media and entertainment sector could be worth an additional £10 billion [€12bn] a year by 2033.”

Sky found in its Powering Creativity report, that the UK media and entertainment sector has the potential to be worth an additional £10 billion a year by 2033 – to £53 billion in 2033, and equal to an additional 40,000 British jobs. Sky anticipates that international demand for British content is set to grow by as much as 50 per cent by 2033, as the UK continues to command a disproportionate share of the international market.

Sky reports that it is continuously investing in the UK’s creative infrastructure. In 2022, the first production started at Sky Studios Elstree, its state-of-the-art film and TV studio. Sky Studios Elstree is projected to attract £3 billion of new production investment to the UK in its first five years and create over 2,000 jobs.

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