Creative sector in theUK maylose billions

The UK is facing a “cultural catastrophe”, industry leaders have warned, with the loss of more than 400,000 jobs due to the pandemic.

Research from Oxford Economics projects that creative industries could lose £74 billion in revenue in 2020.

A report looked at the pandemic’s impact on industries including music, film, TV, theatre, museums, galleries, publishing and architecture.

It projects that the creative sector will be hit twice as hard as the wider economy in 2020, with the impact felt in all parts of the UK and the loss of one in five creative jobs.

Caroline Norbury, chief executive of the Creative Industries Federation said: “These are the industries of the future – highly innovative, resistant to automation and integral to our cultural identity. We’re about to need them more than ever.

“Our creative industries have been one of the UK’s biggest success stories but what today’s report makes clear is that, without additional government support, we are heading for a cultural catastrophe.

“If nothing is done, thousands of worldleading creative businesses are set to close, hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost and billions will be lost to our economy.”

It is calling for a fund for those in the creative sector “who will be hit hardest”, and wants an extension of “vital measures such as the Job Retention Scheme and the Self Employed Income Support Scheme”.

The federation said the industry was thriving before the pandemic, employing more than two million people and contributing £111.7 billion to the economy.