Since the financial crisis, the creative industries have marched ahead of almost every other sector of the economy. Film, TV, music, design, advertising, computing, publishing and architecture are all performing very strongly. Growth in 2012 of a whopping 9.4% was six times faster than the rest of the flat-lining economy.

Thankfully this success story is translating into the labour market with one in twelve jobs across the UK now classed as 'creative'. This is hardly surprising when we consider that British talent dominated the Oscars; five of the top 10 selling albums in the world in 2012 were British; and sales of TV rights to the Premier League increased by 55% from 2010 to 2013 to £2.2bn.

This talent is spread around the country with Greater Manchester, for example, now the second largest hub for creative and digital content across Europe after London. The BBC's move to Media City along with ITV is cementing the region's proud tradition in TV and radio. This is soon to be boosted by the return of Cosgrove Hall - famed for making Danger Mouse - after a five-year hiatus.

Meanwhile the Sharp Project - founded on the back of regional and EU funding - is providing a home to digital entrepreneurs and production companies. Guitar and dance music have long been associated with the area but the city is becoming known as a hub for advertising, designer fashion and publishing too. Not to mention City and United's importance to the Premier League's staggering success as a British cultural export.

A recent analysis of the 'sub-regional economy' by Manchester Monitor found that the creative industries could bring an estimated 23,000 new jobs to Greater Manchester over the next decade – growth of 13%. And Manchester's success is good for the wider North West region with many people commuting into GM or setting up their own creative businesses in nearby towns.

But government funding for arts and culture does not reflect this story. New analysis of regional spending for IPPR's new report 'The March of the Modern Makers' shows that London still gets the lion's share of funding. As the graph below shows, £72 per person was spent in London in 2012/13, compared to just £24 in the North West – a ratio of 3:1.

Despite the move to Manchester, over 50% of the BBC's spending is still in London and the same is true for 40% of Arts Council England funding. The fact that both these organisations are looking to increase their regional spending suggests that we need a stronger evidence-based approach than the current settlement.





Rebalancing the economy away from London and towards a more export-oriented growth model is an explicit goal of the Coalition. Supporting the creative industries outside London is a simple way of achieving both objectives. A more equitable settlement for the government's various cultural spending arms, not least for the North West, along with greater public and private investment in creative content would be a key way of achieving this.

IPPR's new report 'March of the Modern Makers: An industrial strategy for the creative industries' by Will Straw and Nigel Warner is now available to download here

* Will Straw is associate director of the IPPR and Labour's parliamentary candidate in Rossendale & Darwen