Visa system needs urgent reform to ensure global standing of UK’s creative industries

The creative industries are at the heart of the UK economy – both as an exporting powerhouse and a vital employer. From fashion and film to video games and visual arts, the creative industries are a UK success story. Between 2011 and 2019, they grew at double the rate of the UK economy as a whole, creating 400,000 additional jobs since 2015.

It is also a sector highly dependent on international talent and trade. Two new papers published by the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre (Creative PEC) point to worrying trends. Urgent reform to the current visa system is needed to avoid stifling our creative powerhouse. 

Over the past few years, the backbone of policy supporting our international standing – whether immigration or trade policy or diplomacy – has crumbled, leaving the sector exposed to skills shortages, less able to sell goods and services and underestimated as a soft power asset. Policy change in this area won’t be easy but, if it remains unaddressed, the UK risks its competitive advantage for want of policy innovation.

The new research reinforces this evidence, revealing the perception among creative businesses of the UK as a slow-moving bureaucracy with endless paperwork. The sector, which should be focused on creativity, innovation and growth, is clogged up with form-filling and admin. All is not lost: with the right political prioritisation we can turn the tide and maintain the sector’s competitive advantage. But this will require swift policy change.

System not fit for purpose

Post-Brexit Migration and Accessing Foreign Talent in the Creative Industries by Mohamed Yacine Haddoud, Ian Fillis and Tammy Murphy, identifies ten problems the sector faces in international recruitment as a result of Brexit. They include the cost, time and increased burden of the visa system, reputational damage to the country, restricted access to people at the start of their careers due to the visa salary threshold, and restricted access to freelance talent – the lifeblood of the creative sector.

The research is based on 38 in-depth interviews with senior managers in the creative sector and evidence from an additional 147 companies.  63% of those interviewed said increased costs were a significant barrier to recruiting the international talent needed under the new Brexit points-based visa system. 

Specific costs include sponsorship, legal fees, the visa and the staff-time it takes to process this. An HR manager said: “There’s now an additional cost of £7,000 to £8,000, just to get [someone] into the building and then sponsor them. If they don’t work out, then that’s another seven grand to sponsor the next person”.

In relation to freelancers who make up a quarter of the creative workforce, rising to half in sub-sectors like design, companies are facing particular challenges with the visa threshold and a points-based system. The CEO of a London-based performance firm said: “Nightmare, nightmare. Absolute nightmare. The points-based system is just not fit [for] purpose for a freelancer. It’s impossible, it could be a lighting designer, set designer, costume designer or choreographer. It’s just impossible without going through maybe four weeks of work. It’s not fit for purpose.” 

Losing competitive advantage

This is why the PEC has repeatedly called for the introduction of a visa suitable for creative freelancers, particularly those who qualify for neither the tech nor arts exceptional talent visas like those in the broadcast, film or design industries.

Over 50% of companies pointed to the reputational damage of Brexit. An Executive Director of a performing arts school said: “We’ve been recruiting recently. Five or six years ago we would have had applications from all over the world, that has just stopped.” The implication being that our creative companies are no longer able to recruit the best talent. To compound the problem, the research suggests that even people who were working here, or UK residents with the option to work abroad, are also leaving.

These hurdles in international recruitment might be seen as a good thing, perhaps with home-grown talent plugging the skills shortages. But this misunderstands the nature of the high-level skills gaps in the creative industries. 

In some of the highly specialised creative tech or ‘createch’ industries there isn’t a huge UK talent pool so international recruitment is essential if companies are to remain competitive and grow while we build a UK workforce. Put bluntly, over the last decades the UK has benefitted from attracting some of the best in the world to work in our creative sector. We don’t want to lose that advantage.

Brexit vote created trade uncertainty

The second study from Aston University focuses on trade in services: Brexit Uncertainty and Trade in Services: Evidence from the UK Creative Industries 2014 – 2019 by Jun Du, Oleksandr Shepotylo and Emine Beyza Satoğlu. It further emphasises that the creative industries are heavily reliant on freelancers and access to an international pool of talent – musicians, artists, lighting professionals. 

The study is based on a period before the UK left the EU, but after the vote to leave when there was a great deal of trade uncertainty. It finds the UK’s overall creative service exports declined by 15% relative to a scenario in which the referendum did not take place.

The study looked at five areas of the creative economy where the data was robust enough for accurate analysis. It found all five sectors were negatively impacted by the period of uncertainty following the Brexit referendum. They were: audio-visual distribution and licences, computer services, advertising and market research services,  architecture services and audio-visual related services.

To address the challenges the sector faces, the first paper makes eight policy recommendations calling for action including a smart visa scheme taking advantage of smart technology; a new visa scheme to accommodate creative freelancers; a dedicated Home Office helpline to support businesses with visa applications and the sponsoring process; a new visa with a lower threshold to attract more junior employees; and an exemption for micro businesses from the visa and sponsorship costs.

Eliza Easton is Deputy Director (Policy and Communications) at Creative PEC. 

The Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.