Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support the creative industries in Heywood and Middleton North constituency.

The creative industries are one of the government’s eight priority Industrial Strategy (IS) sectors. In 2023, the sector employed 2.4m people, and contributed £124bn in UK GVA – more than 5% of total UK GVA.

The Industrial Strategy is being designed and implemented in lockstep with local and regional leaders. We have selected Greater Manchester as a priority region for the Creative Industries: as a result, Greater Manchester will receive additional funding, to be agreed as part of the Spending Review, to encourage sustainable investment in the creative industries.

Greater Manchester has also received funding from the Create Growth Programme, which supports high-growth creative businesses in 12 English regions outside of London. Government has awarded a further £16.3 million for the programme for the next financial year – part of the £60 million package of support for the sector announced at January’s Creative Industries Growth Summit.

We also set out new commitments from the British Business Bank, the UK’s economic development bank, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in January to strengthen their support for the creative industries, in addition to making shorter apprenticeships available from August 2025, building towards a more flexible growth and skills levy. These are the first steps we have taken in delivering on our ambitions for the creative industries, with more to be set out with the publication of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, alongside the Industrial Strategy, in late Spring.