£25m government fund backs West Midlands Mayor's plan to grow region's fast-growing creative industries

Creative businesses and freelancers in the West Midlands are in line for major government support to help them innovate, up-skill and attract private investment.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) area is one of six UK regions with strengths in creative industries to have been awarded £25 million as part of the Government’s Creative Places Growth Fund.

This funding will grow the already booming creative industries of the West Midlands - including film and TV, video games, createch, music and performing arts and design.

The region is home to over 15,000 creative enterprises, including Digbeth Loc Studios and BBC StudioWorks, while Birmingham, the biggest city in the region, has World Craft City status.

These fast-growing creative industries are at the heart of the West Midlands Growth Plan as one of the high growth sectors that will drive the region’s economy into a new era of prosperity.

Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “Our region is well known for its grit and graft as the manufacturing heart of Britain. But our film and TV sets, gaming studios, music venues, theatre stages, and digital workshops are also fast becoming a major part of our regional economy.

“We have the talent, the locations and now the government’s backing to write a new chapter of growth - one that turns more of our stories into exciting jobs and new opportunities. This is about putting our people and places centre stage in the UK’s fast growing creative sector.”

The Government’s Creative Places Growth Fund was announced in the Creative Industries Sector Plan in June, as part of Industrial Strategy, where the Government shared their intention to invest £150 million in the creative industries of six regions outside of London - Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East, West of England, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has today revealed that the fund will be split equally across these regions to drive growth, innovation and investment.

The fund will empower local Mayors to support creative professionals, businesses and young people in their communities with access to finance, mentoring and networking opportunities to help them connect with investors and skills programmes.

Lisa Nandy said: “Creativity has no postcode - whether it’s a musician in Birmingham, a filmmaker in Coventry, or a video games developer in Wolverhampton.

“We know that it is not one size fits all. That’s why we are committed to growing our creative industries in every corner of the nation as part of our Creative Industries Sector Plan, and hope that this devolved funding will be just what these regions need to make their creative industries the best that they can be.”

This is a new approach to supporting creative industries by devolving funding to high-growth potential Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSAs).

The £25 million allocations will be awarded to the six MSAs over three years, starting in the 2026 financial year, for them to distribute according to local barriers and opportunities.

This is part of a whole range of support announced in the Creative Industries Sector Plan supporting creative growth across the whole of the UK, including providing business support for local creative businesses, regional skills initiatives, innovation capacity building programmes, or by providing sector specific support such as TV and film production funds.

Separately, today the Government is announcing that more than 100 micro, small, and medium-sized creative enterprises across twelve regions, including the West Midlands, are receiving a share of £8 million in grants through the Create Growth Programme.

The grants, ranging from £20,000 to £140,000, are aimed at helping these high-growth businesses commercialise their ideas and access resources, knowledge and private investment to scale up - turning today’s growing businesses into tomorrow’s success stories.

Grants will help firms like Translating Nature, an art and design studio in Margate, and King Bee, a creative animation studio in Hertfordshire, to develop innovative new products, attract private investment and access one-to-one mentoring with industry experts.

The businesses in sectors such as gaming, music and marketing are based in Greater Manchester; Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire; North East of England; West of England; Devon and Cornwall; South East; Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Greater Lincolnshire; Nottingham and Nottinghamshire; Hull and East Yorkshire; West Midlands; West Yorkshire; and Hertfordshire.