Creative clusters report launched by PEC

The Creative PEC (the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre) has launched the first of a series of 'State of the Nations' research reports on December 6th, looking at creative clusters, and examining why they are good targets for policy intervention and investment and a source of future UK economic growth.

Download the report here.

The research shines a light on the role of microclusters in the creative industries, and explains why creative clusters are good targets for intervention and investment, and a key engine for economic growth in the UK.

Nearly 70% of all the UK’s creative industries’ gross value added (GVA) is concentrated in London and the South-East. This constitutes a ‘supercluster’ with considerable benefits for the UK economy; attracting talent, investment, infrastructure, supporting knowledge exchange and fuelling economic growth. The new research identifies seven broad areas - ‘creative corridors’ - within the UK which have the potential to bring supercluster style benefits.

The findings are based on the latest available data sets, that uncover new evidence on the UK's creative clusters, from updated mapping of microclusters to experimental analysis on identifying creative corridors. They build on the Creative PEC’s extensive research in this area, in reports like Creative Radar, which mapped business activity and identified creative clusters.

The report is the first in the Creative PEC’s new ‘State of the Nations’ series, which uses the latest data to inform policymakers on how best to support the creative sector across four thematic areas. Regular reports on each area will be published annually over the five years of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding period. The forthcoming reports will be launched as follows:

Clusters (Sussex University) December 2023 – published today
Internationalisation (Newcastle University) March 2024
Arts, Culture and Heritage Sectors (Sheffield University) April 2024
Education, Skills and Talent (Work Advance) June 2024

The report’s lead author is Dr Josh Siepel (University of Sussex and the Creative PEC) alongside Dr Alejandro Ramirez-Guerra (Newcastle University and the Creative PEC) and Dr Sawan Rathi (University of Sussex)

The report was designed by Mike Green at Green Doe, with thanks to Creative PEC policy, operations and communications teams for editing, proofing and other support.

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