New research shows that following the global financial crisis in 2008 we saw an accelerated trend towards a greater concentration of creative businesses in London. This should warn us against repeating mistakes in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and should encourage the government to step in to protect progress made in investing in creative clusters outside of London.
As part of our research agenda around local growth, this policy briefing highlights research from recent papers (The changing spatial distribution of employment in Creative Industry Clusters in England 1991-2018 and Relatedness between the Creative Industries and the wider economy: A primer) and puts forward policy suggestions to help the creative industries to recover from the economic impact of the recent pandemic and subsequent shut down.
The research has been undertaken by Professor Peter Sunley, from the University of Southampton, and Ben Gardiner, from Cambridge Econometrics, for the PEC and Creative England.
Although this research focussed on England due to data availability, its lessons are applicable right across the UK, and as we look to recover from the COVID-19 crisis, this industrial sector clearly deserves the attention of policymakers across nations and regions.
Published 16th June 2020
Photo by Martyna Bober of Leonard Lane in Bristol, England.
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