"Light on detail when it comes to action & investment in areas such as publishing & fashion..."Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Chair of Commons DCMS Select Committee, on the Govt's Strategy
A Year of Labour in Govt, Does the Industrial Strategy Meet Your Needs?
Who can remember this time last year?
I was gearing up for the Fashion Roundtable x UNEP event we organised at 180 The Strand on July 2nd, and of course the General Election on July 4th, which saw a Labour landslide, when the party won a total of 412 seats (to the Conservatives’ total of 121), an increase of 211 seats since the previous general election in 2019. This gives them a large majority as they form a government for the first time in 14 years. In advance of the General Election, we researched and published our Sector Vision.
Almost a year later, a swelteringly hot UK is less landslide, and more mudslinging as the latest polls all place Reform led by Nigel Farage, now MP for Clacton ahead and the government is about to u-turn on unpopular welfare reforms were released yesterday ahead of today’s Second Reading of the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. Last week saw the publication of the Industrial Strategy, by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Labelled a “Plan for Change” and co-signed by the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds MP. The Industrial Strategy focuses on the 8 core industries which the government believe will grow the economy. One of which I am delighted IS the creative industries. Don’t forget, the Labour Party won on a Growth Agenda. In advance of the General Election, they hosted a Labour Creatives event chaired by actress Cush Jumbo OBE which I attended where it was laid bare that the creative industries would be core to this. Added to this, as I predicted, is a commitment to larger autonomy for the devolved governments, meaning more investment into these economic clusters and more responsibility in the hands of the mayoralties.
The Industrial Strategy states there will be a £150m Creative Places Growth Fund but then goes on to state “this will be a new financial support for screen, music and video games.” Meanwhile the new Creative Content Exchange will be a new trusted exchange to support UK IP. When the UK left the EU we automatically lost EU registered and unregistered design rights.
It’s when I delve into the detail for both the Industrial Strategy and the companion Creative Industries Sector Plan, that I am a bit less clear a) where is the support, clarity of mission and vision for the UK fashion textiles, manufacturing, design and retail sector and b) if the industry needs to be in a different department as the numbers used by DCMS are purely focused on design, which makes the sector a seemingly less buoyant one than the other sub-sectors, which are now part of the government strategy for growth.
The Industrial Strategy’s commitment to public procurement. It does not go as far as our ambition for a UK-made public procurement policy, but is a clear step in that direction.
“The investment also includes tailored packages for high-growth sub-sectors through:
A £75 million Screen Growth Package supporting UK content development and international investment, and showcasing the best of UK and international film. This includes an enlarged UK Global Screen Fund and scaled-up BFI Film Academy to support 16–25 year olds from underrepresented backgrounds to enter the film industry.
A Music Growth Package worth up to £30 million, helping emerging artists break through at home and abroad. Measures will create new touring, performance, mentoring and export opportunities for emerging talent, while also delivering a significant uplift in funding for the grassroots sector to support small venues and help them to platform more high-potential artists.
A £30 million Video Games Growth Package, backing the next generation of start-up games studios and developers. This will drive inward investment in the sector through expansion of the UK Games Fund (UKGF) as well as new support for the London Games Festival.
The Sector Plan also includes support for emerging fashion designers through the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN programme, to help them showcase their work at London Fashion Week and secure business mentoring.” This is the only clear commitment to investment for UK fashion, which while it is to be applauded, is far from the only component of the industry, or the only region of the the UK where we should hold focus.
My question is where is the integration of the devolved government strategy, the mayoral clusters and growth for fashion, which uniquely in the UK could align with drives to net zero, since we have so many of the micro and SME designer, craft and innovation companies, which could support sustainable growth in localised value chains. Along the lines of the Great British Wool Revival, which now has over 200 businesses from farmer through to designer rebuilding a previously broken supply chain across the UK, boosting business opportunity across the UK.
The Creative Industries Sector Plan maps out in detail how the Government will support the sector to grow even further over the next decade through a focus on boosting regional growth, innovation, access to finance, skills and exports. The sub-sectors which have been prioritised do not include fashion, they are music, film, gaming. I am uncertain how an industry which until Brexit was growing 11% year on year and which according to widely shared data is the largest.
In 2021 Oxford Economics worked with the British Fashion Council to publish ‘The Economic Impact of the Fashion Industry’, which stated: “the GVA (gross value added) by the UK fashion industry was £28.9bn, equivalent to the wholesale and retail market trade of motor vehicles.” In November 2023, UKFT published a report, again researched by Oxford Economics, which stated the UK fashion and textile industry directly supported a £62bn contribution to UK GDP, 1.3m jobs across the country and raised more than £23bn in tax revenues.
Their report says: “The UK fashion and textile industry is one of the largest sectors in the country and its influence extends around the world. A new fashion or textile product – which could range from a pair of jeans, Savile Row suit or designer dress through to a medical mask, upholstered car seat or next-generation fabric used in space – involves hundreds of people co-operating with each other to bring an idea to life and into the hands of the final consumer.
The activities of the people involved can be broadly categorised into two main areas: “creating and making” and “distribution, retail and aftercare”. The report found that approximately 260,000 jobs are supported through design, development and manufacturing (“creating and making”), while one million jobs are supported through distribution, retail and aftercare.
The report also underlines the industry’s social impact, benefitting diverse demographics by supporting:
197,000 jobs for people aged under 25,
52,000 jobs for those aged 65 and older
540,000 jobs for women
The industry’s extensive footprint reaches all nations and regions of the UK, supporting:
210,000 jobs in London
140,000 jobs in the North West
120,000 jobs in Yorkshire and the Humber
110,000 jobs in the South West
100,000 jobs in Scotland
56,000 jobs in Wales
40,000 in Northern Ireland
This report confirms that the UK fashion and textile industry “has the potential to play a pivotal role in the nation’s next phase of economic growth. The sector could support an additional £15 billion in GVA, generate 100,000 more jobs and contribute £5 billion in tax receipts if it returns to its 2019 size.“
So my confusion stems from what definitions of the fashion industry are the government working with, and how do these differ from those being used by Oxford Economics et al? Because if the industry’s value is not being effectively communicated to the Creative Industries Council (CIC), who shaped the Sector Plan: “The Sector Plan was developed in partnership with the Creative Industries Taskforce, Creative Industries Council, businesses, devolved governments, and regional stakeholders. It builds on the recent £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund supporting cultural venues across the nation,” then we have not only a communication issue, we have a data issue.
Here’s what I welcome:
A Freelance Champion to represent freelancers at a government level and increased investment in screen sectors and public service broadcasters, as part of a wider 10-year plan to grow industries of the future. Given so many creative sector workers are self employed, this is a welcome step. As many faced a lack of support during the Covid-19 crisis, versus employed colleagues.
The British Business Bank (BBB) is a state-owned economic development bank established by the UK Government. Its aim is to increase the supply of credit to small and medium-sized businesses and provide business advice services. Given 98-99% of UK fashion brands are SMEs, support which focuses on this area is vital to encourage growth.
Createch is a clear industry growth area, with a £25m Creative Futures programme committed to immersive tech, AI, and IP driven innovation. However, legal clarity around AI training data and copyright must involve the wider industry. What is Createch you ask? Createch is where creativity meets technology. According to the CIC: “It brings together creative skills and emerging technologies to create new ways of engaging audiences and to inspire business growth and investment. Building on the UK's reputation for creativity and invention, Createch embraces the commercial and cultural possibilities of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, 5G, and other developing fields. The CIC is working to raise the profile of Createch to that of FinTech or EdTech in the financial and education sectors.”
My question against this drive for innovation and AI global leadership is where does this leave the craft and hand skills training gap, which the work of The King’s Foundation, and Heritage Craft lead on in training schemes, in line with HM the King’s philosophy of “Harmony,” and when so many of these skills increasingly feature on the Heritage Craft annual endangered red list.
Skills, which not only hold heritage and tangible assets in their training, are also core to increasing awareness of wellbeing and mental health, as shown in an Anglia Ruskin study last year. Dr Helen Keyes, Head of the School of Psychology and Sports Science at ARU, said: “Crafting and other artistic activities showed a meaningful effect in predicting people’s sense that their life is worthwhile. Indeed, the impact of crafting was bigger than the impact of being in employment. Not only does crafting give us a sense of achievement, it is also a meaningful route to self-expression. This is not always the case with employment. Engaging in these activities is linked with a greater sense that life is worthwhile, increased life satisfaction and happiness. The wellbeing effects were present even after we accounted for things like employment status and level of deprivation. It seems that crafting can contribute positively to your wellbeing above and beyond these other aspects of your life.”
So back to the numbers and how we got to a situation where the Creative Industries are back on the map as an economic and social driver for growth, jobs and investment, but the fashion industry is not one of the key sub-sectors. Several months ago, Meg Pirie and I uncovered that not only are the SIC codes not always the correct for the industry - when I was a stylist I could use either hair stylist or fashion designer - but also the valuation given by ONS seems awry, with growth only shown in Leicester and London in 2024. Yet at the landmark Leicester Made event in May, I was told repeatedly of factory closures and a need for inward investment. This is precisely why we need a commitment to UK made public procurement, in order to stabilise orders and staffing, in a volatile global market.
Meg and I approached DCMS, Creative England, UKRI and many other organisations, highlighting our concerns about the discrepancies with the numbers and valuations for the sector. We were seeking funding to deep dive into these anomalies, so we could better understand the true value and from that then hep shape policy objectives. Our definitions are wider than DCMS’s, we include manufacturing, retail, digital and creative, marketing and of course design. Which in part I think is why the values that the BFC and UKFT share and promote are far higher than the smaller design focused definition of fashion which DCMS use. DCMS said they would look into these anomalies in ONS data, and so reading the Sector Plan, I wanted to share these clips:
And with it a clear request: not only that Fashion Roundtable are part of the Creative Business Panel, but given we have previously pro-bono advised The Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), that we are brought in earlier and more regularly on these investment, data capture and policy analysis meetings and research strategy meetings.
I set up Fashion Roundtable as I felt policy has to be shaped by those it serves. If you have been freelance, or managed staff, or dealt with carnets, led creative teams, had challenging clients, the myriad of normals in an industry which is anything but, then you have the relevant expertise to make the best case for it’s growth. That is as true today as it ever was. Otherwise, I feel Dame Caroline Dinenage’s concern in her role as Chair of the DCMS Select Committee: “It is good to see the Government planning interventions in parts of the sector, but this plan is light on detail when it comes to action and investment in areas such as fashion and publishing - and crucially the small and independent performing arts sector, which acts as a vital talent pipeline for production further up the chain,” is a valid one.
To have your say about this, I suggest you take the DCMS Select Committee Creative Industries Sector Plan Survey, please click here. We have a lot of opportunity to grow, shape and nurture, I believe it starts with a vision, a mission and good data.