Call for Evidence: Access to finance and the Creative Industries

Deadline: 25th April 2022

Creative businesses, people and places have the power to unleash innovation and strengthen the UK’s global competitive edge.

The creative industries have the potential to support “levelling up” across all parts of the country, to create opportunities and to unlock entrepreneurialism, creativity and sustainability. The ability to access appropriate finance is key in helping to fully realise the sector’s incredible economic potential, yet there is a strong body of evidence to demonstrate that access to finance stands as a key barrier to growth for creative businesses.  

Creative UK wants to ensure that a much greater diversity of creative entrepreneurs can access the finance they need to thrive, innovate and grow. Over the next few months, we will be undertaking a major piece of research that will include the following themes: 

1. The barriers that creative businesses (and SMEs generally) face in accessing finance;
   
2. Gaps in finance provision for creative businesses;
3. Evidence around how accessing finance can support creative businesses to innovate;
4. How being able to access finance can support local economic growth and levelling up;
5. In our research we’ll also be looking at equity funding as part of a wider series of tools to support creative businesses. We would also like to gather insight around if, and how equity funding supports SMEs (particularly those who are early stage and have high growth potential) to grow and innovate.

We’re making a call for evidence and insights on the five areas listed above to support our work in the form of key publications (such as industry and research reports), good practice guides, policy briefings etc. We also welcome practical evidence such as case studies and good practice guides, and we’re also keen to hear from anyone with significant personal or professional experience of any of the above listed areas.

Your input will help to shape and inform our work going forward. To contribute, please email info@wearecreative.uk and use the subject line Creative UK Call for Evidence. The deadline for submissions is Monday 25th April 2022.

For further information on this project, please contact Amanda Stevens, Head of Research & Impact: amanda.stevens@wearecreative.uk