NESTA: Creative sector doubles economyâ??s pace

New research suggests that the British creative industries have grown at an average rate of 5.2 per cent each year – nearly twice the pace of the UK economy in general.

The data has brought NESTA to the conclusion that, over the next five years, Britain’s creative industries will continue to grow “at double the rate of the rest of the economy”.

NESTA’s findings come as part of its new ‘Creative Clusters and Innovation’ report – an ambitious study which has resulted in the first ever map of British creativity.

The so-called ‘Creativity Map’ identifies the UK’s key creative hotspots, and finds that London is the dominant creative industry city of Britain.

A statement released by NESTA did not specify how many of the mapped London creative firms were in the games business.

The paper identifies nine other creative hotspots across the UK; Bath, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Guildford, Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford and Wycombe and Slough.

“Britain is a world-beater in the creative industries and this mapping shows the centres of excellence we have across the country,” said NESTA research head Stian Westlake.

“With the right policy interventions, such as the East London Tech City initiative, these creative clusters have the potential to become global hubs for high growth, innovative creative industries and create wider economic growth.”