A Creative Block? The Future of the UK Creative Industries: A Knowledge Economy & Creative Industries report

Author: Benjamin Reid, Alexandra Albert and Laurence Hopkins

Institution: The Work Foundation

Full reference: Reid, B., Albert, A. and Hopkins, L (2010) A Creative Block? The Future of the UK Creative Industries: A Knowledge Economy & Creative Industries report. London: The Work Foundation

Summary of key findings

Looking at the effect of long- and short-term trends on the creative industries’ ability to assist the UK recovery, this report demonstrates how, despite unrivalled economic performance and their rightly celebrated strengths, the UK creative industries are now under threat from a combination of recession induced cuts, the global trends towards convergence and digitalisation, and concrete actions from other governments to maximise the recovery-boosting economic potential of their own creative industries. The report argues that, unless acted upon quickly, there will a creative block to the UK creative industries’ achievement of their full potential as a driver of growth and innovation.

The report proposes a strong role for coherent and co-ordinated policy action to address the situation. It urges the government to provide consistent messages and policy to industry, investors and potential new employees regarding its support of the UK creative industries as a growth sector. The report recommends that the government should view the creative industries as a central part of a robust national innovation ecosystem and increase its support for investment in creative industries research and technology innovation.

The team returned to Staying Ahead and found it continued to provide an appropriate model for conceptualising the creative industries with the following revisions so it could be used to examine the industries’ continued development up to 2020:

• Industry categorisation: The ‘software’ designation from the original DCMS categorisation of the creative industries requires revision to take account of the newer, more complex business models.
• Drivers of growth: An explicit acknowledgement of the role of global competition and technology change should be added to the eight drivers of growth and innovation identified by Staying Ahead.
• ‘Spill-over’ model: Models of the flow of value in inter-relationships between creative organisations and the broader economy need to acknowledge the more complex networks within which most creative organisations are now operating.

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Research Questions & Methodology

Critical Analysis.

The report assesses:

• How the UK creative industries should be understood in a digital, globalised context.
• How we can ensure the creative industries are on the front foot for the recovery of the UK’s economy.
• Whether government policy is best positioned to meet the challenges faced by the UK creative industries.

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