Investing in creative industries: guide for local authorities

Creative industries are increasingly cited as one of the sectors likely to be a future source of jobs, innovation and productivity. Yet for local areas, faced with multiple calls for investment and tighter resource constraints, it can be difficult to know whether creative industries should be a priority for local investment.

To take an informed decision about whether to invest, local authorities need to know the answers to a range of questions, including:

• What outcomes might investment in creative industries deliver?
• Will the characteristics of their local economy make it more or less likely that investment will deliver these outcomes?
• Who are the partners with whom local authorities could work?
• What are the factors that have helped investment in creative industries be more or less successful in other local areas?
• What are the types of investment that will deliver the desired results?
• What other resources will help local authorities decide whether and how to invest in creative industries?

To respond to this need, the Work Foundation, supported by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Local Government Association (LGA), has developed full and summary guides to complement this online resource.

Investing in creative industries – summary version (PDF, 16 pages, 1.2MB large file)

Investing in creative industries – full version (PDF, 75 pages, 2.1MB large file)