This report is a collaboration between Creative UK and the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC). It is based on a survey of 896 firms from all creative sub-sectors, located across the UK’s nations and regions.
The report was written by Professor Hasan Bakhshi, Director of Creative PEC, with Dr Josh Siepel, Lara Carmona and Amy Tarr.
Benchmarked against the SME Finance Monitor survey, the report finds that creative organisations have a higher appetite for growth than businesses in other sectors (72% vs 59%) – but were over four times more likely to face obstacles in accessing the finance needed to fund it.
Despite the creative industries being named as one of eight priority growth sectors for the forthcoming UK Government Industrial Strategy later in 2025, the report reveals worrying trends:
- Over half (51%) of creative organisations reported that they believe funders view them as too risky to invest in.
- 41% of survey respondents say that there are no suitable financial products on the market to meet their needs.
- There was clear evidence that – in many cases – funders and creative industries organisations do not understand each other’s needs.
The report also highlights concerning data around equality, diversity and inclusion. Female and ethnic minority-led creative organisations are more likely to report needing capital (9% and 10% respectively) but face more barriers to access. Organisations with ethnic minority-led leadership are more likely to view access to finance as a barrier and are 17% more likely to have to put their own capital into the business.
These issues are compounded by market failures around financial information. 30% of those surveyed said they lack the knowledge about finance to make informed decisions for their business and 27% of organisations feeling they do not know where to go for information about finance.
Commenting on the research, Hasan Bakhshi said:
“Our data confirm that creative industries firms are much more likely than firms in other sectors to identify access to finance as an obstacle to their growth.
“Digging deeper, we find shortcomings in both the supply of finance – with investors and lenders all too often ill-informed on the economics of the sector – and the demand for finance – with too many creative businesses not investment-ready, and even when they are, not being fully aware of their options. Addressing these problems therefore needs system-wide policy changes if the Government is to follow through on its commitment to harness the creative industries’ growth potential.”
