About the report
This report presents the findings of a new survey on access to finance in the creative industries, conceived and initiated by Creative UK, and delivered in collaborative partnership with the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC).
Between July-September 2024 we surveyed 896 firms from all creative sub-sectors and located in all the UK’s nations and regions, using weighting by sub-sector and nation and region to make the sample representative. This landmark report finds that, while creative organisations want to grow, they face real obstacles in accessing the right kind of finance to facilitate this. The UK’s creative industries are a success story, growing 1.5 times faster than the economy as a whole, and identified by the UK Government as a priority sector for its forthcoming Industrial Strategy. Notwithstanding this strong performance, if policy can address longstanding structural barriers relating to access to finance, the creative industries have potential for even higher growth.
Creative Economy Capital
Also launching today, Creative UK has published a provocation for a new investment framework: Creative Economy Capital. This is designed to better align commercial capital, social impact finance and philanthropic investment – ensuring that creative enterprises can access the right investment at the right time. Designed to address the issues highlighted in today’s report, Creative Economy Capital would channel investment into intermediaries, tailored to the distinct needs ofcreative organisations at various stages of growth, with public capital providing guarantees and first-loss investment to de-risk private contributions.
