NESTA’s campaign for further investment in the creative industries received endorsement from the DTI in July when Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, called for City financiers to invest more in the UK’s thriving creative industries.

Speaking at Citibank in London, the Secretary of State urged financiers to invest the creative industries calling them, “one of the most successful – and fastest growing – sectors of our economy.”

Using a recent poll undertaken by NESTA that stated that less than a quarter of investors were willing to invest in the UK creative industries despite the fact that 64% of them believed its potential as a world leader, Ms Hewitt called on investors to look again at the sector.

Patricia Hewitt said:

“Our creative industries - exciting, fashionable, world-leading, but also, too often, seen as 'flaky', style oriented and superficial -more subsidy oriented than hard-nosed business. But my message to the investment community is that we cannot afford to ignore these creative companies. That means investing in both our successful 'creative industries' - to use the old definition - and companies embracing creativity more widely across the economy."

In February NESTA published a report, New solutions to old problems: investing in the creative industries by industry specialist, Tom Fleming, which emphasised that under-investment means the sector is failing to achieve its full potential. 

The report highlighted four key areas where urgent action is needed to ensure that development within the creative industries is sustained. They were:

· The development of a "Creative Gateway" – a trade association for the sector to improve sector intelligence and identity.

· Bespoke financial tools and support for creative industry businesses, most of which are innovative SMEs.

· Encouragement of creative clusters, areas where creative businesses group together and spark the regeneration of communities, such as Hoxton in London and the Northern Quarter in Manchester.

· Improved business and financial skills for people in the creative industries, aimed at graduates, who make up the majority of the workforce in the sector.

Since then, NESTA has been working with representatives from the creative industries and from the investment and business support communities to identify ways to achieve these goals.

Patricia Hewitt made the speech in the same week that Gordon Brown emphasised the importance of creativity in enterprise.