Design industry welcomes creative economy programme

The design industry has broadly welcomed the publication of the Government’s 26-point ‘plan’ for the creative industries, published jointly by the Department for Culture, the Department for Business and the Department of Innovation last Friday.

Two years in the making, the strategy document – Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy – finally emerges after a series of delays and redrafts prompted by the departures of two culture secretaries and the challenge of legislating for more than a dozen industries, ranging from design and architecture to crafts and computer games.

‘This finally gives us a framework for the creative industries to operate in, rather than just a mapping document,’ says Design Council chief executive David Kester.

‘It is very important now that we see design written across a trio of strategies: across the cultural strategy, which we are now in; across an enterprise strategy in terms of its value to business; and across the innovation strategy in terms of its strategic value to science and technology,’ Kester adds.

Jon Kingsbury, head of Nesta’s creative economy programme, says, ‘We welcome the focus on developing creative clusters. Our research showed the creative industries in UK rural areas have shown significant growth.’

‘If the UK economy is to benefit fully from the new ideas emerging outside of its cities, the Government will need to ensure it is doing enough on a national and local level to support these areas,’ he adds.