U.K. Finance Opinion Poll: Voice Your Opinions on Access to Funding
The Creative UK Access to Finance Survey, led by Professor Hasan Bakhshi MBE and Dr Josh Siepel, is currently live and aims to capture new data on creative industries firms' ability to access finance in seven years. This significant survey seeks to understand and address the financial barriers faced by businesses and entrepreneurs in the creative sectors, particularly underrepresented founders.
The creative industries, contributing roughly 6% of the UK's GDP (£125bn annually), face notable access to finance challenges and perception issues that hinder their growth. Research has found substantial funding gaps, especially for underrepresented groups such as female founders, with only a small fraction of venture capital reaching these entrepreneurs.
The survey results will help to strengthen the evidence base for creative industries, which is currently poorly served. It will provide detailed, sector-specific data on the funding challenges within creative sectors, informing government policies and industry initiatives that promote inclusive growth and innovation in these industries.
The survey is calling on creative businesses to complete the questionnaire, which takes only a few minutes and is anonymous. It aims to understand how creative businesses and organizations use finance, the types of finance they use, the ways they use finance, and the barriers they face in accessing the finance they need to grow.
The survey was designed by Creative PEC, Creative UK, and BDRC. Both Professor Hasan Bakhshi MBE and Dr Josh Siepel, an Associate Professor in the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex Business School, have contributed to its design. The survey responses will help policymakers better understand the challenges faced by creative industries businesses in accessing and using finance.
The work supports consultations and policy recommendations around recognizing and supporting creators economically, including updating classification codes and tax guidance specific to creative industries to facilitate financing and business operations. The survey findings help shape policy and programmatic responses to behavioural and structural investment barriers, such as improving visibility and accessibility of financing programs, addressing motivational factors beyond profit, enhancing financial literacy, and tailoring support to micro and small creative businesses.
The survey results will be important in shaping our understanding of how creative businesses use finance and how they can be better served to get the finance they need. The results of the survey, conducted by Creative PEC, will be published later this year. To participate, creative businesses can visit the survey link at https://www.wearecreative.uk/access-to-finance-survey-2024/ before the deadline on 13 September. The survey needs responses from all creative sectors and all regions to produce rigorous evidence that will drive forward targeted interventions, helping to unlock investment, improve inclusion, and support sustainable growth in the UK’s creative economy.
- The Creative UK Access to Finance Survey, currently live, is collecting data on the ability of creative industries firms to access finance, with a focus on understanding and addressing the financial barriers faced by underrepresented businesses and entrepreneurs.
- The survey results will contribute to a stronger evidence base for the creative industries, providing detailed, sector-specific data that will inform government policies and industry initiatives promoting inclusive growth and innovation.
- The survey, designed by Creative PEC, Creative UK, and BDRC, aims to understand how creative businesses and organizations use finance, the types of finance they use, the ways they use finance, and the barriers they face in accessing the finance they need to grow.
- The findings of the survey will help shape policy and programmatic responses to behavioral and structural investment barriers, such as improving visibility and accessibility of financing programs, addressing motivational factors beyond profit, enhancing financial literacy, and tailoring support to micro and small creative businesses.
- Creative businesses are encouraged to complete the survey questionnaire, available at https://www.wearecreative.uk/access-to-finance-survey-2024/, before the deadline on 13 September to help produce rigorous evidence that will drive targeted interventions, unlocking investment, improving inclusion, and supporting sustainable growth in the UK’s creative economy.
