Six areas across England are to be awarded a share of £10.9m to scale up hundreds of creative industry businesses.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer announced the expansion of the government’s Creative Growth programme during the WeCreate conference at Manchester’s Aviva Studios yesterday (14 November).
The expansion doubles the areas covered by the programme. Creative businesses in Nottinghamshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Devon and Hertfordshire will now be eligible to access private investment and scale-up advice.
The amount of funding each area will receive is not set and depends on the individual area’s business needs and the number of businesses that apply for grants and support.
Since launching in 2022, the Creative Growth programme has delivered £28.4m. It is estimated the programme’s expansion will take the total number of creative organisations supported by the scheme to 1,800.
The programme was developed to support government ambitions to grow the creative industries by £50bn by 2030.
Speaking in Manchester yesterday, Frazer said: "We’re already making progress towards the ambitious goals set out in our sector vision, unveiling millions in new funding to drive growth in our grassroots and scale ups and banging the drum for creative careers."