A more ambitious agenda for the Creative Industries

Last week I was invited to speak to the DCMS Strategy Unit and, unusually, was given complete freedom over the subject matter.

I chose to focus on four areas where the creative industries deserve much more ambitious thinking from policymakers. Areas where, without a significant shift in approach, this government risks doing little more than managing decline in an area of the economy that should be among the country’s greatest economic and strategic assets.

These are all areas my work has touched on over the last few years, and where I've helped to deliver some real policy change - from making the case for the UK's Soft Power Council and Hub to improving how the visual arts are represented and measured in national datasets.

But these are knotty, structural challenges. They require more than individual policy interventions. To make meaningful progress, this - or any future - government will need to willing to invest both political attention and, yes, resources. 

With Westminster currently consumed by day-to-day politics and summer recess approaching, there is a temptation to see the coming months as a time to wait-and-see. The creative industries should resist that temptation. The UK's need for growth has not diminished, nor have the geopolitical pressures reshaping our economy. Instead, this is the time to develop the evidence base and policy proposals that could underpin more ambitious action. The four areas below are, in my view, urgent priorities for research and debate, so that when political attention returns in September, policymakers are able to go beyond firefighting, to engage with the true scale of change the sector needs.

1. Innovation

Over the last few years, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about the creative industries' place within the UK's innovation landscape. Much of that work has focused on making the case that policymakers continue to underestimate not only the potential of CreaTech - where creative businesses are developing and deploying emerging technologies - but also the wider social and economic innovation generated by the sector.

The next challenge is to become much more specific about where investment and intervention are needed. That means moving beyond broad discussions about the importance of innovation and identifying concrete opportunities at a subsector level. Our work with the National Theatre, for example, demonstrated how rich and distinctive opportunities can be when examined through this subsectoral lens.

It also means asking difficult questions about which business models, sectors and forms of intellectual property are most likely to generate long-term growth and/or impact. We began exploring some of these issues in our work for DCMS and the Royal Anniversary Trust, but much more needs to be done.

Innovation policy will always involve risk - that is, sort of, the point. The task is not to avoid risk, but to identify opportunities where the potential rewards are significant enough to justify taking it.

2. Exports 

The creative industries remain one of Britain's great export strengths. Yet the environment in which creative businesses operate is changing rapidly. Geopolitical instability and rising protectionism are reshaping global markets, creating some opportunities but many more challenges. 

In the visual arts, our research for a coalition of industry organisations demonstrated that the UK is no longer keeping pace with global growth, with policy and regulatory barriers undermining competitiveness. These challenges are not confined to a single subsector: many of the trade related issues identified in Erskine's flagship 2024 report with UAL continue to affect the wider creative economy.

What is needed now is a much more strategic approach to creative exports. That means developing better evidence of how creative goods and services fit within wider economic strategy and trade policy, in a bid to ensure that the creative industries are recognised as a core national trade asset and are treated as such during future negotiations. The experience of the post-Brexit period, when the sector was too often an afterthought in trade discussions, cannot be repeated.

The world is becoming more fragmented, volatile and competitive - so an export strategy needs to be written, but also to be adaptable. Rather than reacting to events as they happen, policymakers should start planning for different possible scenarios, developing a clearer understanding of the risks and opportunities likely to shape global markets over the next decade. 

3. Soft power 

My work with UAL showed that the UK ranks first or second globally across most creative industries when measured by either economic value or international brand strength. This creates a virtuous circle in which creative success improves our national brand, and in turn a strong national reputation supports tourism, inward investment and demand for British goods and services, including in the creative industries.

Yet the case for soft power extends beyond economics. There is a global fight raging for influence, legitimacy and trust. The ability of the UK to attract, persuade and build relationships with peoples around the world is - no exaggeration - vital. 

The UK possesses a strong soft power asset base: world-leading creative industries, globally recognised cultural and sporting institutions, respected universities, a reputation for democratic values and the rule of law, and internationally trusted organisations, in particular the British Council and the BBC World Service. These are strategic advantages built over decades and are exceptionally difficult for competitors to replicate.

Yet there remains a disconnect between the value of these assets and the priority they receive in policy debates. While countries including China and Russia continue to invest heavily in international influence and cultural projection, the UK has often moved in the opposite direction, reducing support for some of its most effective soft power institutions. The British Council is cutting jobs to pay off its Covid loan; members of the Soft Power Council are speaking out about lack of ministereal interest.

Periods of uncertainty increase, rather than diminish, the need for soft power. South Korea, Norway and Ukraine have each demonstrated this in different ways over the last decade. Soft power isn’t a luxury to be prioritised in periods of prosperity but a strategic asset whose value grows when circumstances get tough. It is time to come up with a real plan.

4. Arts funding

When we talk about arts funding, the conversation almost always turns to the part played by arm’s length bodies - in England’s case, its arts council. But, as my research has long pointed out, across all four nations of the UK, local government has historically been the largest funder of the arts. Even after more than a decade of decline, its role is fundamental.

The scale of reductions to local authority budgets have not only weakened councils' cultural investment, but also created a domino effect: other funders have tried to fill the gap (through both traditional grant funding and innovative financing mechanisms), but without significant equivalent increases to their own budgets, the overall result has been a shrinking pool of support.

The Review of Arts Council England by Baroness Margaret Hodge has prompted a much needed debate about the purpose of Arts Council England: its role, future strategy and changing funding priorities. 

But whilst there are many excellent academics, researchers and arts professionals thinking seriously about cultural funding at the devolved level, we lack the same kind of thoughtful evaluation from government seen through the Hodge Review. We need big thinking: put bluntly, what comes next for culture when Local Government Reorganisation is likely to represent the most significant reshaping of local governance in a generation, but local authorities appear increasingly unable to fund even their statutory responsibilities?

The answers to all of these questions should not, cannot and will not come from policymakers alone. They will require researchers and industry leaders to start asking their own questions about what a genuinely ambitious creative industries strategy would look like. I look forward to being part of that conversation.

With thanks to the DCMS Strategy Unit for the invitation.

Photo by Jordhan Madec on Unsplash‍ ‍