Led by Matt Lyons PhD student at Cardiff Business School the South East Wales Creative Industries Survey 2019 aims to answer the question: how important are creative industries to the economy of South East Wales?
Creative industries are increasingly important to the UK economy, contributing over £100bn in GVA and supporting over 2 million jobs. Creative industries are growing faster than the rest of the economy, are more export intensive and are more resistant to automation in the future.
However, regardless of all the upsides, creative industry jobs are not evenly distributed. They are clustered in London and the South East of England where they represent 12.2 per cent and 6.9 per cent of jobs respectively. Wales by comparison has just 4.4 per cent. In Wales, these jobs are concentrated in the Cardiff city-region and are dominated by the screen sector, which has become the focus of Clwstwr - the creative hub for the Cardiff city-region.
In the 1990s, research in Wales highlighted the impact these industries could have on the local economy, with their high degree of embeddedness, high value-added and high paying jobs that are lacking in Wales (1).
Despite these high-level figures, the microeconomic data necessary to understand the economic impact these industries have on local supply chains is largely absent. This absence is a key challenge for policymakers in Wales because without this economic intelligence there is a danger these industries will be undervalued.
It is vital to plug the data gap and provide up to date, detailed information on creative industries and their inter-industry relationships. This data will provide policymakers with the information required to justify their decisions and thereby give creative industries in South East Wales a much stronger case for investment.
Can you help us?
What are the top 5 things your business spends money on? How much of this is spent in Wales? What are your main sources of revenue?
If you run a creative business in South East Wales and can answer the above questions, please take our short survey.
Your privacy and confidentiality is assured
Taking part in this survey will involve detailing your business expenditure these data will be held confidentially and securely such that only the researcher, Matthew Lyons can trace this information back to you individually. The information will be retained for up to 1 year and will then be anonymized, deleted or destroyed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Your participation in this study is entirely voluntary, and you can withdraw from the study at any time without giving a reason.
(1) Bryan, J., Hill, S. Munday M. and Roberts, A., 2000. Assessing the role of the arts and cultural industries in a local economy. Environment and Planning A. 32.8, pp.1391-1408.
T: @MattLyonsEG
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/research-students/view/1266052-lyons-matthew
