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UK’s £92 billion creative sector growing twice as fast as the wider economy
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 30 November 2017
The creative industries made a record contribution to the UK economy in 2016, according to new stats from the government’s Department For Digital, Media, Culture And Sport. So well done creative people everywhere! Well in the UK, mainly. Maybe take a day off to celebrate. No, hang on, that’ll just have a negative impact on the British creative economy. And with the Brexit timebomb ticking ever louder, every penny counts.
According to the DDMCS, the wider creative industries in the UK – which includes films, broadcasting, gaming, advertising, museums and the arts, as well as music – now have a ‘Gross Value Added’ figure (that being the metric used when measuring the economic impact of different sectors) of £92 billion.
That is up from £85 billion in 2015, meaning the sector is growing twice as fast as the wider economy, and now makes up more than 5% of the UK’s entire GVA.
Says the boss of the DDCMS, culture secretary Karen Bradley: “Britain’s creative industries play an essential role shaping how we are seen around the world but as these new statistics show they are also a vital part of the economy. The sector is now one of our fastest growing industries and continues to outperform the wider UK economy”.
She goes on: “This is a testament to the talent and drive of its workforce and we are working closely with them to make sure this fantastic success continues. I am delighted to see the sectors my department supports contributing so positively to people’s lives and helping strengthen the economy, as we work to build a Britain fit for the future”.
So that’s all lovely isn’t it? Good job the UK government is concurrently slashing funding for creative subjects like music in the education system. We wouldn’t want to accidentally train up a future generation to continue all this growth.
