The government plays a pivotal role in supporting culture. In the run-up to the year 2000, the Millennium Commission provided £2 billion of National Lottery money to many now-iconic arts and culture institutions.
This was established by the Conservatives and continued under Labour after the 1997 election. In 1946 the Arts Council was established to give more people benefit from great art and culture nationally. And just a year prior, Clement Attlee’s Labour government made major gains over Churchill to lead this post-war future.
This year has also brought a seismic political swing. Culture is still an instrument of growth, social purpose and opportunity for change. But in a marked difference, the creative industries – those that produce culture – are now recognised as a total powerhouse and celebration of our global influence. From performing arts to computer games to sculpture, the creative industries account for one in five jobs in London and add £124 billion to the UK a year.
So what is needed now at this point of political gear change?
The ‘mission’ is growth, growth, growth. Labour’s Industrial Strategy picks out the creative sector to drive this and is supported by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget.
Now the need is to enable clusters, networks of spaces and creative corridors to unlock opportunity. The former chief economist at the Bank of England agrees. Andy Haldane is now the chief executive of the Royal Society for Arts and says the current chancellor should make a ‘big, bold bet’ on culture. Enter, the Thames Estuary Production Corridor.
It spans East London, the North Kent Coast and South Essex, building on the strength of the existing creative economy in the region to make the UK’s largest concentration of creative production. At We Made That, I’ve been involved since 2018 in thinking about creative industries on a scale never seen before. We’re looking at 50,000 new jobs and £3.7bn of added value per year through the production corridor.
What about that big, bold bet then? We know from our research study that the screen and fashion production industries are booming, each growing twice as fast as the rest of the country. With the potential for these alone to support £1.7 billion in economic value, two new action plans have been produced that set out priorities for new infrastructure and types of future projects, which will drive resilient and sustainable growth. It’s less a bet and more a well-built case for investment.
However, there are headwinds. You’ll know this too since your Netflix subscription increased in 2022, 2023 and 2024. It’s not a quick buck from building new film studios for the global streaming giants that people once saw driving growth. But there are still clear needs. More than 800 screen industry enterprises moved into the production corridor in a five-year period to 2021, growing the sector by 42%. The new Screen Industries Road Map for Growth champions net zero and circularity principles, ensuring sustainability is a key competitive advantage.
Priority initiatives and projects have been identified to develop a transformational portfolio of assets across the region. More zero-emissions virtual production soundstages like those in Thamesmead and re-use storage facilities for the film industries like those in Southend-On-Sea.
Plus, specialist workspaces for the digital, animation and immersive industries through to a regional screen hub. Projects from Three Mills in Stratford, to Basildon and Margate all need skills and talent too, as highlighted in Reeves’ Budget.
London fashion is also doing its thing, as ever. Whilst eBay and Oxfam led on circularity and re-use at fashion week this year, the industry is facing sustainability challenges to become greener and fairer. “Re-shoring" of fashion production is creating need for on-demand micro-factory production spaces, blending tech, craft, waste and resources, education and skills.
Fashion design and manufacturing are intrinsically linked and often locate close together. The FashionDesign andManufacturing Road Map for Growth identifies opportunities for small-scale equipped spaces for graduates, start-ups and small businesses, through to a textiles upcycling hub. As learnt from Hong Kong, Eindhoven and Melbourne, fashion micro-clusters can support circular and ethical practices. This matters if you’re betting on growth because there are 43,000+ jobs across the fashion value chain in the production corridor.
And we know there is space for these. The team mapped over 650 potential sites across the estuary to identify opportunities for cultural production. These exist across our high streets, town centres, brownfield sites and developing neighbourhoods.
The Greater London Authority in partnership with the Thames Estuary Growth Board and Creative Estuary have done the work to shorten the odds on success. The Labour government should place this bet now if they want to see the growth they’ve been promising. Together, local councils, developers, industry leaders, institutions, businesses, education providers and community organisations will want to collect the winnings.
Oliver Goodhall is co-founding partner at We Made That
