Regional Growth Fund, Consultation
The Crafts Council has responded to a Department for Business Innovation and Skills consultation on the Regional Growth Fund.
The fund of £1 billion aims to support projects with significant growth potential and is intended for areas and communities currently dependent on the public sector. The consultation paper sets out the objectives of the fund and proposes how it will be designed. Read the Crafts Council response to the consultation questionnaire below and access further information about the fund from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills website
September 2010
1. Background
The Crafts Council is England’s national development agency for contemporary craft. It aims to build a strong economy and infrastructure for contemporary craft, to increase and diversify the audience for contemporary craft and to champion high quality contemporary craft practice nationally and internationally.
The Crafts Council works to promote participation and learning, developing opportunities for interaction and informal engagement with craft. It supports craft makers’ professional development and builds the market for contemporary craft by running fairs and promoting export. It holds a significant collection of contemporary craft, which it makes available through touring exhibitions and loans. It also works to raise the profile of contemporary craft through critical debate and by building an evidence base that demonstrates the nature and value of craft.
The contemporary craft sector is part of a vibrant cultural and creative sector in the UK, which contributed 5.6% of the UK’s GVA in 2008 (source: DCMS).
The Crafts Council welcomes this opportunity to comment on the Regional Growth Fund.
Recent publications from a number of organisations, including the CBI and NESTA, have emphasised the significant potential of creative industries, along with other innovative sectors, in rebalancing the economy and regeneration. The cultural sector has benefitted from existing regional funding streams and we hope that provisions for the sector continue with the Regional Growth Fund.
Allocation of funding (page 7)
1.Are there benefits to be had from allocating different elements of the fund in different ways?
The allocation of different elements of the fund in different ways could be beneficial to creative industries including craft. The craft sector in the UK typically comprises small enterprises and individual makers (sole traders).
Craft makers have varying professional development and financial needs at different career stages. Early career makers benefit most from grants which can help them to start up and sustain their practices in the first few years – typically the most challenging financially. More established makers and craft SMEs can grow their businesses from capital investment and financial support for start-ups and SMEs which leads to growth and job creation in the craft sector. (The Crafts Council’s own national professional development programme, Collective, provides a portfolio of five cpd programmes enabling craft makers to develop their craft and business skills and increase income throughout their careers.)
We support the proposal that funds be administered locally in response to local needs and believe that this will promote a sense of local entrepreneurialism alongside other benefits.
Craft skills and participation in craft are particularly strong in areas of deprivation. The most recent DCMS Taking Part data shows that in the least affluent regions including the North East, North West, West Midlands and York participation in craft activities was either higher than or equal to the national average.
For example, the history of craft in areas such as the Potteries has spanned generations, with contemporary craft projects responding to the industrial history and rekindling a sense of place and pride. Stoke-on-Trent is the centre of the British ceramics community and hosted the first British Ceramics Biennale in 2009. The Biennale received funding from the North Staffordshire Regeneration Partnership and aims to create a sustainable impact for residents, it is both a festival and ongoing programme for the city including residencies, fellowships, commissions, learning and inclusion, and business start-ups from 2009-2013.
Craft projects can also assist job creation and social inclusion in less affluent areas. For example the Xtravert programme, set up in 2009 and funded through the European Social Fund, is a training programme to help young people in the South West who are not in education, employment or training to develop carpentry and business skills. With an emphasis on craftsmanship the programme provides young people with the chance to build new skills and begin a career for themselves, with craftsmanship skills.
Administering funds at the local level would enable greater flexibility in responding to the specific histories and needs of different regions.
However, whilst it is important to respond to local needs a national overview of the distribution of funds must also be maintained to ensure that fund as a whole is used to make sufficient provisions for different sectors.
Type of activity (page 8)
2. What type of activities, that promote the objectives outlined above, should the fund support and how should the fund be best designed to facilitate this?
We strongly welcome the prioritization of funding for skills and employment from the Regional Growth Fund.
In our own sector, we have increasing evidence that the skills, creative capabilities and aptitudes that craft engenders contribute to intellectual development, character and social capital.
Craft is a substantial player within the creative industries, growing more rapidly by employment than any other sector. Nearly 35,000 people work as contemporary craft makers in the UK, and the whole craft sector contributes£3bn to the economy each year. New research commissioned by the Crafts Council shows that 16.9 million people have already bought craft and that the total market for original contemporary craft is around £913m per annum(1). The value of sales of original craft doubled between 1994 and 2004. Largely made up of self-employed makers and owners of SMEs, the sector has a significant role in the UK’s future economic landscape.
The craft sector has a number of characteristics noteworthy for Britain’s new industrial landscape. It is fastest growing amongst the young, which means it is well placed for further growth. New research commissioned by the Crafts Council shows that craft graduates are successful, entrepreneurial and socially mobile (2) .
Investing in craft has significant spill-over effects into other creative industries and beyond. The recent Crafts Council report Making Value (3) shows makers contributing to sectors from film and fashion to health and architecture and partnering manufacturers in new commercial products. Creative industries have a part to play in regeneration and rebalancing which is out of proportion to the jobs they create directly and the fund should take into account spill-over effects to encourage the growth of creative industries in the regions.
The fund could also be used to diversify and facilitate the provision of new routes into the craft sector alongside Higher Education Institutes, including Further Education Institutes and apprenticeships. However, these must take into account the profile of new professional makers (often embarking on second careers) and the difficulties of micro-businesses and sole traders in providing apprenticeships.
Bid system (page 9)
3. Do you think that these are the right criteria for assessing bids to the Regional Growth Fund?
N/A
Bidding process (page 9)
4. Do you think we should operate a two-stage bidding process?
N/A
Longer term potential (page 11)
5. Should a Regional Growth Fund become a long-term means of funding activity that promotes growth?
Cultural organisations typically operate on mixed funding models. Public investment commonly supports the developmental and research aspects of the sector which in turn stimulates the growth and commercial end. Cutting public funds could thus halt growth. Recent and anticipated cuts in public funding for culture, and associated potential declines in philanthropic giving through loss of leverage, have left an urgent need for funding for the sector. We believe that all these factors point to a longer-term fund that can build on initial investment and lead to robust and resilient businesses with the capacity for continued development.
(1) Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (2010): Consuming Craft: the contemporary craft market in a changing economy London, Crafts Council.
(2) Hunt W, Ball L and Pollard E (2010): Crafting Futures: a study of the early careers of crafts graduates from UK higher education institutions London, Crafts Council.
(3) Schwarz M and Yair K (2010): Making Value: craft & the economic and social contribution of makers London, Crafts Council.
