New £1.3m programme to boost South East creative businesses

By Sam Pither

8 November 2022

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A new initiative aiming to boost the South East’s creative businesses has received £1.275 million funding from the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport.

The Create Growth Programme will offer support, networking and investment to help the creative businesses in the region commercialise innovative creative ideas.

Led by Kent County Council, a consortium of partners secured one of only six £1.275 million awards offered by the DCMS to regional partnerships around the UK.

Mike Hill, Kent County Council's Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services, said: “We are delighted that our bid for £1.275m from the DCMS Create Growth Programme has been successful.

“The programme offers us the opportunity to build on previous programmes, such as South East Creatives. It will help provide infrastructure and new routes to investment to support the diversity of the area’s creative businesses.”

The Create Growth Programme aims to help high-growth potential creative businesses outside London to become investment ready as well as educating and developing investor networks to increase the number of investors.

With more than 10,600 people employed in the creative industry and 1500 creative companies relocating there in the past five years, Kent is set to considerably benefit from the programme.

Digital start-ups, film & TV studios, artistic producers, games manufacturers, and entertainment companies form an ecosystem of expertise and growth in the county, which features both household names and SMEs.

Investment in the Thames Estuary, connecting the county to London, and strategic locations that are primed for creative and digital businesses to expand, include the Folkestone Creative Quarter, Maidstone TV Studios, and Margate Creative Land Trust.

On top of these creative hotspots, towns such as Tunbridge Wells, Gravesham, Margate, Folkestone and Ashford have also been taking full advantage of the county’s booming creative sector, building creative communities.

Sarah Dance, Co-Chair of South East Creative Economy Network (SECEN) and Deputy Chair of South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP), said: “The South East Creative Economy Network is an open network and coherent voice for the creative sector in our region, working as part of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) where the creative sector is growing at phenomenal rates.

“The South East’s creative industries are a critical part of our economic foundation and the South East LEP has long been dedicated to ensuring this vastly important industry thrives in our region.

“We are delighted to have secured this investment for our region’s 15k+ creative businesses and look forward to working with the DCMS and our Consortium partners to make this programme a success.”

To be eligible, businesses must be between the seed and scaling stages and work in either: Film, TV, Video, Radio & Photography; Design & Designer Fashion; Music, Performing & Visual Arts; or CreaTech, Augmented Reality (AR) Aritificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Extended Reality (XR) and Gaming.

Eligible companies will also have access to a share of £7 million finance through Innovate UK if they can demonstrate their potential to scale rapidly and become sustainable through private investment.

Caroline Norbury OBE, Chief Executive, Creative UK, said: “The South East Create Growth Programme exists to support creative talent across the South East with crucial investment and development opportunities.

“We are excited to be partnering with the South East Creative Economy Network (SECEN), the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) and true innovators and thought leaders in the region Screen South and Wired Sussex to help champion growing businesses, channel investment into the region and make a real impact to support the South East’s leading creative businesses of the future.”

The consortium managing the new programme consists of:

Kent County Council (Lead Partner holding the contract with DCMS)
East Sussex County Council
Essex County Council
West Sussex County Council
Basildon Council
Medway Council
Brighton and Hove City Council
Screen South
Wired Sussex
Creative UK
University of Essex - Angels@Essex
Creative Estuary
University of Kent

Featured image: iStock

By Sam Pither

Sam is the Regional Editor of Biz News, responsible for both Hampshire and Dorset.

A new recruit to journalism, Sam started writing for the Business Magazine as a freelancer in May of 2022 after completing his degree in English at University College London. His passion for local businesses and ability to tell a story soon caught the attention of the publication’s management team and have led to his meteoric rise.

Sam, who lives in central Reading, takes a particular interest in technology, gaming and food and drink, having been a chef before starting his degree.