- Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East, West
of England, West Midlands and West Yorkshire receive £25m each to
grow their creative industries
- Comes as £8m in grants go to more than 100 small and
medium-sized creative businesses across 12 UK regions including
Cornwall, Devon, Hull and East Midlands
- Funding to unlock growth as part of the Government's Plan for
Change
Six UK regions with strengths in creative industries such as film
and TV, music, fashion and video games have been awarded £25
million each to grow these sectors as part of the Government's
Creative Places Growth Fund.
The fund was announced in the Creative Industries Sector Plan in
June, as part of the Industrial Strategy, where the Government
shared their intention to invest £150 million in the creative
industries of six regions outside of London - Greater Manchester,
Liverpool City Region, North East, West of England, West Midlands
and West Yorkshire.
Culture Secretary has today revealed that the fund
will be split equally across these regions to drive growth,
innovation and investment. The fund will empower local Mayors to
support creative professionals, businesses and young people in
their communities with access to finance, mentoring and
networking opportunities to help them connect with investors and
skills programmes.
This is a new approach to supporting creative industries by
devolving funding to high-growth potential Mayoral Strategic
Authorities (MSAs). The £25 million allocations will be awarded
to the six MSAs over three years, starting in the 2026 financial
year, for them to distribute according to local barriers and
opportunities. This is part of a whole range of support announced
in the Creative Industries Sector Plan supporting creative growth
across the whole of the UK, including providing business support
for local creative businesses, regional skills initiatives,
innovation capacity building programmes, or by providing sector
specific support such as TV and film production funds.
Separately, today the Government is announcing that more than 100
micro, small, and medium-sized creative enterprises across twelve
regions are receiving a share of £8 million in grants through
the Create
Growth Programme.
The grants, ranging from £20,000 to £140,000, are aimed at
helping these high-growth businesses commercialise their ideas
and access resources, knowledge and private investment to scale
up - turning today's growing businesses into tomorrow's success
stories.
Grants will help firms like Translating Nature, an art
and design studio in Margate, and King Bee, a creative
animation studio in Hertfordshire, to develop innovative new
products, attract private investment and access one-to-one
mentoring with industry experts.
The businesses in sectors such as gaming, music and marketing are
based in Greater Manchester; Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire;
North East of England; West of England; Devon and Cornwall; South
East; Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Greater Lincolnshire;
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire; Hull and East Yorkshire; West
Midlands; West Yorkshire; and Hertfordshire.
