The Work Foundation | Creative industries

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Dr Benjamin Reid
Senior Researcher, Big Innovation Centre
T 020 7976 3552
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Creative industries

The creative industries are a key sector for jobs, growth and innovation as the UK recovers from the recession. Their success will be a key source of competitive advantage to the UK through to 2020 and beyond. But global changes potentially threaten the UK’s traditional strength in the creative industries.

The creative industries programme develops insight and recommendations to ensure the UK can build on its historical success to generate explosive growth and maintain its position in the global creative economy.

The programme has been running since October 2010 and has been investigating four related key themes with three cross-cutting topics: digitalisation, globalisation and innovation.

Key themes:
UK policy responses to the creative industries
Focusing on innovation and convergence, industry structure, regulation and access to finance. Analysis of potential barriers to generating explosive growth.

Creating and understanding value in the creative industries
What valuation models are being used in the creative industries? What kind of models should organisations and government adopt to provide a useful and practical tool for understanding the creative industries in a global context?

Orchestrating innovation networks in the creative industries
What is the role of larger businesses in the UK creative industries in fostering growth and innovation in the networks and supply chains of smaller organisations? How can the broader economy better support and leverage the innovation inherent in the creative economy and enhance our global standing?

The competitive environment
What are the regulatory and financing barriers impeding or supporting explosive business growth in the creative and cultural sector? What is the role of government in generating explosive growth? What can we learn from other regulatory regimes and international comparisons? Can creative organisations in the UK continue to compete in a global marketplace? What are the government departmental structures in place to support the sector?

In addition to the four key areas of focus of this programme, we have examined the economics of cultural leadership and the state of the UK creative industries' labour market.

Related Reports

The Contribution of Advertising to the UK Economy
For the first time, this report calculates the key economic impacts of the advertising industry on the UK economy. Expanding from direct impacts, it also explores the industry’s impact on outcomes such as innovation, growth and competitiveness.

Alexandra Albert and Dr Benjamin Reid
07 November 2011

The Big Digital Dilemma
The internet has changed the way we live, and the way that companies do business. But as well as helping us to order our shopping, it has spawned an economy of its own, a digital economy that takes place solely online, through exchanges of content.

Andrew Sissons
13 September 2011

A Creative Block?: The future of the UK creative industries
The former world-leading position of the UK Creative Industries is under threat. This report outlines what policy recommendations could maximise its potential to boost recovery.

Benjamin Reid, Alexandra Albert and Laurence Hopkins
14 December 2010

Related Events

The Business of Creativity Conference
The Business of Creativity was a high level conference designed to influence how the education sector can assist the UK creative industries to compete in the global market.

Fri, 30 March 2012
10:00 - 16:00

The contribution of advertising to the UK economy
This event will mark the launch of Credos’ report "The Contribution of Advertising to the UK Economy", written in partnership with The Work Foundation.

Thu, 03 November 2011
17:00 - 19:00

Creativity relies on Natural Talent, not Learned Skills?
What is the role of creativity in developing business focused education?

Fri, 30 September 2011
15:00 - 17:45

Related Blogs

How government can get 3D printing policy right without micro-managing
Allister Heath, editor of City AM, discussed our report on 3D printing in his letter this morning. He labels 3D printing – along with self-driving cars – as the “big ideas to watch over the next decade”.

Andrew Sissons
16 October 2012

3D printing - from hype to economic growth
Where is economic growth going to come from? This is the question every economic policymaker and commentator in the UK is currently asking.

Spencer Thompson
16 October 2012

Creative Industries Tax Relief: more than just Wallace and Gromit?
Today the Chancellor extended tax relief to three sections of the UK’s creative industries, animation, videogames and high-cost drama. Broadly this makes a lot of sense. As The Work Foundation have argued in the past, the creative industries have a particularly wide role in the economy, generating significant positive spillovers. We have some world-leading production capacity in these areas, but recent industrial activism in other countries such as Canada and Ireland has moved some key business abroad from the UK.

Spencer Thompson
21 March 2012

BBC Radio 5 Live / Wake Up To Money
16 October 2012

Digital IP
Professor Birgitte Andersen , director of the Big Innovation Centre talks about the changing issues of digital IP.

Professor Birgitte Andersen
11 January 2012

Market confidence in deficit reduction strategy could collapse without credible plan for growth
Market confidence in the recovery and deficit reduction plan could collapse unless the government comes up with a credible strategy for reviving the UK economy.

24 November 2011