Music and performing arts growth stalling

Economic growth among music, performing and visual arts organisations is at its slowest since 2009-10. Although the financial contribution made by this sector of the creative industries to the economy grew by 5.4% in 2013-14, this figure is down from 15% in 2012-13 and 7% in 2011-12. In addition, of the nine creative industry sectors – alongside advertising, architecture, crafts, design, media, software, publishing, and museums – the arts is the only one that has not kept pace with the average growth it has achieved since 2008.

New figures have been released by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, describing the contribution of the creative industries to the UK economy in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA). Between them, the nine sectors contributed £84.1bn – 8.9% ahead of the previous year – and employment in the sector is up, having grown by 5.5% to reach 1.8 million jobs. The creative industries’ rate of growth was also higher than for all other sectors except construction and significantly higher than for the economy as a whole, which grew by just 4.6%.  

John Kampfner, Chief Executive of the Creative Industries Federation, praised organisations in the creative industries for diversifying their incomes: “This success has been built not only on their talent, but on a mix of public and private investment, from arts council grants to tax credits. This shows that support and investment for the creative industries is repaid many times over.
 
“However, there are still areas where the Government needs to act to secure continued growth, not least by providing a proper creative education to ensure the workforce of the future.”