This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Labels & Publishers
Economic contribution of UK creative industries tops £100 billion
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 29 November 2018
The contribution of the wider creative industries to the UK economy passed the £100 billion mark in 2017 according to the new stats from the government’s Department Of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. In fact, the gross value add of the creative sector was £101.5 billion.
When calculating this annual GVA figure, the DDMCS combines the economic impact of the music, film, TV, radio, photography, advertising, museum and gallery sectors, and those digital disciplines that are in some way creative. The latter has played a key role in significantly boosting the GVA from £94.8 billion in 2016 to the £101.5 billion figure, because it includes British gaming firms like Rocksteady Studios and Rockstar Games, who have been doing very well of late thank you very much.
Commenting on the latest stats, the government’s low-key culture man Jeremy Wright mused thus: “Our creative industries not only fly the flag for the best of British creativity at home and abroad but they are also at the heart of our economy. Today they have broken the £100 billion mark and continue on a hugely positive upward trajectory, outperforming the wider UK economy and bringing joy and entertainment to millions”.
Despite many in the creative sector fearing that their specific issues with the impending Brexit disaster are not being addressed – and the remaining frustrations with how creative subjects continue to be downgraded in schools – Wright nevertheless insisted: “We’re doing all we can to support the sector’s talent and entrepreneurship as we build a Britain that is fit for future”.
Listing what that includes, the statement announcing the latest GVA figure cited tax breaks for TV and film makers, the nine new ‘creative clusters’ set up by the government’s Industrial Strategy, and investments being made in the kind of new-fangled technology that will drive many creative businesses in the future. Good times.
