Baroness Bull
Main Page: Baroness Bull (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Bull's debates with the Cabinet Office
(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Bull (CB)
My Lords, I join others in welcoming today’s maiden speakers.
As we have heard, the creative industries contribute to the UK’s social, cultural and economic well-being, delivering £116 billion GVA pre-Covid and 2.2 million jobs. Given this, their inclusion in the levelling-up fund and the plan for growth is welcome.
Despite this success, the sector has challenges of diversity, skills and scale, which this Budget begins to address. New flexibilities in the apprenticeship scheme will diversify opportunities. Reforms to the global talent visa and a new elite points-based visa could, if well designed, help to ensure access to skills. It is encouraging that the Government have heard the arguments for a creative industries R&D tax relief. Creative businesses undertake almost as much R&D as manufacturing, but their current exclusion rules out legitimate innovation in this fast-growing part of the economy and misses the chance to ensure that behavioural insights are built into new technologies to increase adoption rates.
Set against these positives are the continued challenges of Covid for a sector unlikely to generate income until summer at the earliest. It is disappointing that a government-backed insurance scheme similar to the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme was not introduced. Furlough and support scheme extensions are welcome, but too many taxpayers still fall through the gaps. One year on, will the Government extend the SEISS criteria to catch them? How will the Government ensure that the extra £408 million cultural funding reaches freelancers, who make up one-third of the creative workforce and are, literally, its lifeblood?
Finally, there is still no announcement of the promised alternative to the Creative Europe culture sub-programme, which contributed €18.4 million to UK culture each year. When we will hear more on this?
This is a sector hit hard by Covid and even harder by its inexplicable absence from the EU-UK TCA. This Budget’s emergency support is welcome, but it is no substitute for the long-term investment that will preserve its world-leading status and help the creative industries play their role in economic recovery.