Creativity Is GREAT Britain: FCO Celebrates UK Creative Industries

15 May 2014 03:47 PM

FCO hosts a “Creativity is GREAT” reception, in conjunction with UKTI, to celebrate the talent, value and innovation of the UK’s creative industries. 

Around 500 people attended the event, including representatives from international Chambers of Commerce, British companies and members of the London Diplomatic Corps.

The Creative Industries generate over £71 billion per year for the British economy and employ over 1.6 million people. They are also enjoying the highest growth rate of any UK industrial sector. The event was an opportunity for attendees to find out the secret of their success, by experiencing some of the best emerging talent from the sector.

Tim Davie, CEO of BBC Worldwide and Co-Chair of the Sector Advisory Group for the Creative Industries spoke about the quality and range of the British creative industries. Guests then enjoyed a performance by Public Service Broadcasting, a critically-acclaimed young band who were one of the first recipients of UK Trade and Investment’s Music Growth Scheme, which offers grants to support the international development of UK Music around the world.

Other creative industries on show included a fashion installation featuring creations by some of Britain’s best new designers, as well as a menu curated by top British chef Tom Aikens.

Attending the event, Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said:

The creative industries are playing a vital role in driving growth as part of the Government’s long-term economic plan. They support over 1.6 million jobs and generate over £71 billion per year for the UK economy. We have a wealth of talent working in this sector and through “Creativity is GREAT Britain” the Government is helping businesses promote investment opportunities to an international audience.

Minister of State for the Foreign Office, Hugo Swire said:

This event has shown how much talent there is in our creative industries and how important it is that we continue to show the world what the UK has to offer in this sector, not least through the GREAT Britain campaign.

Tim Davie, Co-Chair of the Creative Industries Sector Advisory Group, said:

It’s an exciting time for the UK’s creative industries, with the sector making up 8% of UK service exports and winning awards around the world. The Creative Industries Sector Advisory Group is working with UKTI to make sure we have a strategy in place to build on that international success and reinforce the UK’s place as a world leader for the creative industries.

Further information

Follow #CreativityisGREATBritain on twitter

Follow the GREAT campaign on twitter @GREATBritain and on facebook

Pictures of the event

The reception was supported by FIRST Publishing, Lloyds Direct Capital, WPP and Metro Broadcast.

The GREAT Britain campaign is the British Government’s most ambitious international marketing campaign ever and showcases the very best of what Britain has to offer, in order to encourage the world to visit, study and do business with the UK. The initiative was launched by the Prime Minister in September 2011 and is now a global campaign, deployed by Britain’s diplomatic posts in 144 countries around the world.

The over-riding objective of the campaign is to support Britain’s economic recovery and generate jobs and growth. The first phase of GREAT delivered economic returns worth over £500mn to the economy with a further £600- £800mn of returns forecast from the 2013-14 campaign. Based on this successful start, the Prime Minister announced last year that the campaign will continue until at least 2016.

The Government’s agenda for the creative industries has been driven by the Creative Industries Council, originally set up by Government, but now industry-led. Its role has been to identify key barriers to growth for the sector and propose actions for both the industry and Government to overcome these barriers. Activity has been focused on the areas of access to finance, skills, exports and inward investment, copyright, and data collection.

Examples of support to the sector include:

Creative Content Tax Reliefs

Government has set up a range of creative content targeted tax reliefs. The existing film tax relief has helped raise more than £1 billion in inward investment into British films. Additional tax reliefs targeted at animation, high-end TV and video games were announced in Budget 2012, aimed at supporting technological innovation, and part of our ambition to make the UK the technology centre of Europe.

Arts Council England (ACE)

Between 2011 and 2015, ACE will invest £1.4 billion of public money from government and an estimated £1 billion from the National Lottery in arts organisations and cultural programmes. It has also set up a loan scheme and mentoring programme to offer offering business development support and access to finance for creative industry enterprises.

British Film Institute (BFI)

The BFI’s five year plan Film Forever is expressly designed to strengthen and shape the future of UK film with an investment of almost £500 million over the next five years to help drive industry growth, build audiences and stimulate vibrant film culture which together sow the seeds for future prosperity.