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New proposals aim to boost the creative economy

New proposals to boost the UK's creative economy have been published for consultation.

The proposals, part of the Government's Creative Economy Programme, have been drawn up by working groups tasked with exploring new ways to help the UK's creative industries prosper.

Now the Government wants to know what people working in those industries, including fashion, music, computer games and advertising, think about their ideas.

Following consultation with the industry, the working groups identified themes such as business skills, education and high city centre rents, which create barriers that prevent small and medium sized businesses growing.

They have produced recommendations for breaking down these barriers including:

• A complete re-assessment of business education in the creative sector and cash incentives for investment in management development;
• A network of UK Creative Ambassadors to promote our small and medium sized companies abroad;
• A creative business "health check" service to ensure businesses are getting quality, tailored business advice;
• "Creativity Towers" - new models for establishing concentrations of specialist creative workspace and activity space in new developments - the idea being to provide flexible, affordable homes for creative businesses; and
• A creative industries 'dating agency' to broker and co-ordinate new relationships and partnerships.

The full reports and recommendations are now available on the Creative Economy Programme website (www.cep.culture.gov.uk) and are published for industry consultation. Anyone with an interest in the UK's creative industries is invited to have their say and tell the Government what they think of the working groups' recommendations.

Creative Industries Minister, Shaun Woodward, said: "Our creativity and talent are respected and envied the world over. And our creative industries are a major success story. But we need to master the alchemy of turning our brilliant ideas into hard, global business success if we're going to stay ahead of the game.

"I'd like to thank the working groups for their recommendations. This is the first major milestone of the Creative Economy Programme - a programme which aims to make the UK the world's creative hub. These experts have given us their thoughts on how we can improve the way our creative industries work together and become even more successful. Now we want the views of everyone working in the industries and beyond."

The Government says it will consider the recommendations, along with industry consultation and contributions from other stakeholders and work towards a policy paper for the UK's Creative Economy.

External links

Creative Economy Programme

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

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