Abstract

The UK creative and cultural sector offers a unique contribution to the British economy. British music, films, digital productions, publications and creative artefacts not only represent 6.2% of the country's GDP and drive innovation across a number of related sectors, but are at the heart of the UK's identity on the global stage. This success story rests on the country's ability over the last few years to usher in a new generation of cultural entrepreneurs, who have seized on the opportunity of a changing funding and public policy landscape to drive innovation and change across the creative sector. The public sector, flanked by a number of charitable bodies and quangos such as the British Council and Nesta, has successfully set up a number of initiatives to harness and support young entrepreneurial talent, and has worked hard to reduce the bureaucratic barriers and fiscal burden on creative start-ups and on the film and digital industries. As a result, the UK cultural sector now dominates, in terms of entrepreneurial drive, innovation and revenues, its European counterparts and London has become one of the global capitals of the cultural economy.