East Midlands creative sector could lose a third of all jobs

The East Midlands could lose a third of all its creative sector jobs, according to new figures which point to a “cultural catastrophe”.

The Creative Industries Federation has about newly commissioned research from Oxford Economics reveals that the UK’s creative industries are “on the brink of devastation”. The research shows that the UK’s creative sector was previously growing at five times the rate of the wider economy, employing over 2 million people and contributing £111.7bn to the economy – more than the automotive, aerospace, life sciences and oil and gas industries combined.

Regionally, the Midlands is set to be hit hard.

The East Midlands is projected to see a 31% (£800 million) drop in creative industries GVA, and 1% of its creative jobs (1,300) owing to a greater use of the furloughing scheme. However, the region is projected to be amongst the hardest hit once the Job Retention Scheme is withdrawn.

The West Midlands is projected to be the region hardest hit in terms of job losses, with 2 in 5 creative jobs in the region projected to be lost. This could represent a major setback to the levelling up agenda, particularly in light of research from Cambridge Econometrics, released by the PEC/Creative England this week, which suggests that, based on recovery from the 2008 recession, creative industries outside of London will take much longer to ‘bounce back’ than those in the capital.

Caroline Norbury MBE, CEO, Creative Industries Federation, said: “Our creative industries have been one of the UK’s biggest success stories but what today’s report makes clear is that, without additional government support, we are heading for a cultural catastrophe. If nothing is done, thousands of world-leading creative businesses are set to close their doors, hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost and billions will be lost to our economy. The repercussions would have a devastating and irreversible effect on our country.

“We urgently need a Cultural Renewal Fund for those in the creative sector who will be hit hardest, including those industries who will be latest to return to work, those businesses unable to operate fully whilst maintaining social distancing and those creative professionals who continue to fall through the gaps of government support measures. We must also avoid a cliff-edge on vital measures such as the Job Retention Scheme and the Self Employed Income Support Scheme, which have been a financial lifeline for many parts of the creative industries and cannot be cut off overnight.

“It is time to both imagine and engineer our future. We will need our creative industries to do that. They are too important to ignore.”