What’s next for Coventry’s creative industries? - Print version

Introduction

A report was commissioned by Coventry City Council to inform plans to develop a Coventry Creative Industries strategy/plan in 2025 to 2026 [http://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/45842/what-s-next-for-coventry-s-creative-industries-]. The purpose was to gain a better understanding of the current size of the creative industries sectors in Coventry, as well as map current challenges, opportunities and activities through sector consultation and existing data sources.

The report is primarily focused on the economic development of the creative industries sub-sector, and the wider creative economy, across Coventry. Although in addition it touches on the relevance to this of the cultural offer, tourism and the visitor economy.

This report seeks to bring a clearer understanding of the immediate importance of the creative sector and the wider creative economy to Coventry, as well as consider how these could be aligned with wider regional and national opportunities.

The report is intended to provide evidence and advice to Coventry City Council through a set of recommendations based on the findings. These recommendations and a proposed roadmap of priority actions can help ensure the city is ‘on the front foot’ to take advantage of emerging opportunities and funding. It should be emphasised that the recommendations are made by the author and do not represent adopted policy or approaches by Coventry City Council.

Executive summary

This is a potentially transformational moment for Coventry's creative industries. With wide-ranging creative and tech expertise, leading games cluster status with Warwickshire, strong industry collaboration from its universities and huge placemaking potential post UK City of Culture 2021, all it needs now is the right targeted policy actions to deliver lasting economic and social value to the city, its people and the wider region.

Coventry's creative industries represent a significant economic force that extends far beyond traditional creative boundaries. The city hosts 1,290 creative businesses comprising 13% of all local enterprises, directly employing 7,250 creative and cultural workers.

However, the sector's true impact is much larger - approximately 14,500 workers (circa 9% of the entire city workforce) are engaged in creative occupations, including across the broader economy, from designers at Jaguar Land Rover to marketing teams in utility companies. When combined with Warwickshire, the region boasts over 7,000 creative businesses and 80 game development studios, forming one of the UK's most significant creative clusters.

These creative and tech strengths combine with Coventry’s strong business clusters, such as automotive, advanced manufacturing and healthcare, to drive createch - a fusion of creative innovation and cutting-edge technology that is enabling the development of new products, services and experiences.

However, alongside this context of creative and business strength the city is facing some urgent challenges that need to be addressed head on. These include:

• a lack of affordable creative spaces, venues, and specialised facilities is a major challenge
• tourism and branding need a stronger, coordinated city identity to attract investment and visitors
• business support services are fragmented across different authorities causing uneven access. This lack of creative industry specialist support hinders handling of key sector concerns, such as around intellectual property (IP), finance or AI adoption. These two factors often mean that creative businesses find it difficult to get the support they need
• short-term funding cycles cause instability, hindering business investment
• skills shortages and limited career opportunities lead to poor graduate retention; with only 15-20% of Coventry University creative graduates staying in the region, compared with a lower still 12% retention across all courses at the University of Warwick
• freelance creative work is often uncertain, poorly paid and lacks career progression, with limited business focused support available
• the City of Culture Trust collapse caused significant uncertainty; with economic pressures pushing many businesses into survival mode, limiting planning and collaboration

Fortunately, on the other side of the balance sheet, the city has a vast array of opportunities that can be harnessed to solve many of these challenges and put Coventry on a stronger economic path, these include:

• Business Development: specialist support, better funding access, and stronger freelancer networks can boost growth in all creative areas
• Cluster Development: building on the success of CWX - Coventry & Warwickshire Exchange – gives potential for a unified creative cluster with physical spaces, brokerage, and university ties
• Skills and Innovation: modernised university curricula, more bootcamps, and AI adoption support can solve workforce issues and position Coventry as a creative and tech leader
• infrastructure: new projects like the City Centre Cultural Gateway offer creative spaces, venues, and hubs to transform the city
• Tourism and Branding: relaunching Destination Coventry and new partnerships help rebuild the city’s cultural brand and leverage immersive and live performance strengths

Having explored the statistics of the city, its wide-ranging activities, alongside challenges and opportunities, this report sets out recommendations to begin ‘moving-the-dial’, including:

Business and freelancer support

• Providing targeted creative sector support with specialist advisors
• Broadening funding options beyond grants, including venture capital and angel investors
• Building freelancer networks offering co-working spaces, training, and advocacy

Networking and partnerships

• Launching a creative cluster initiative led by a dedicated Cluster Manager
• Creating a central business hub to drive collaboration and innovation
• Offering brokerage services to connect businesses, universities, and other sectors

Skills and workforce development

• Expanding digital and AI training within business support programmes
• Aligning education with industry needs and strengthen graduate retention
• Promoting creative bootcamps and apprenticeships for upskilling

Places and spaces

• Increasing creative spaces through temporary, repurposed, new and affordable developments
• Addressing safety in creative areas and integrate space needs into major city projects
• Exploring innovative business models to speed up the development of places and spaces

Tourism, visitor economy and branding

• Positioning eSports as a flagship event, leveraging university expertise
• Promoting Coventry’s unique live experiences blending arts, games, and technology
• Developing a unified brand and marketing strategy for the creative sector

Public funding and Government plicies

• Focusing a creative cluster initiative on high-growth sectors and maintain a strong project pipeline
• Capitalising on opportunities from the government’s recently published Modern Industrial Strategy, including immersive tech and gaming clusters

Priority actions

Resources are always limited, and so in the report’s final section a number of key actions are identified that could bring timely impacts whilst using limited resources. The first set of these can be delivered by a wide range of partners working together.  Actions include:

Business, clusters, networks

1. Improve coordination of creative sector support, focusing on needs like sustainability and AI, and broaden finance options for creatives
2. Pilot expert business support schemes (e.g., active-brokerage, entrepreneur in residence) and relaunch networks to better serve creative business clusters
3. Launch a creative cluster initiative in Coventry, building partnerships among key organisations for stronger knowledge sharing and networking
4. Leverage all opportunities to bring new creative jobs into the city and region
5. Enhance support for creative freelancers, especially newcomers, to help them establish and market their careers

Skills and workforce development

6. Align further and higher education courses with industry needs and foster more collaboration between education and industry
7. Promote more creative bootcamps, apprenticeships, and short courses in Coventry to upskill current and aspiring creatives
8. Talent Development - including access and inclusion of creative expression from primary school age upwards - is essential for a strong and diverse creative workforce in the future

Places and spaces

9. Establish a Creative Economy Development Agency to secure affordable creative spaces, repurpose existing venues, and encourage collaboration among creative hubs

Tourism, visitor economy and branding

10. Develop unique live experiences for Coventry’s visitor economy, such as blending arts with digital tech and e-sports, and test pilot projects to create standout immersive events

Public funding, city development and Government policies

Public bodies such as combined authorities and city councils are central to coordinating and growing a city's economic power and increasing its national profile. Below is a list of roadmap priority actions for consideration by Coventry City Council itself:

1. Lead the creation of a creative cluster initiative, including a Cluster Manager, and ensure the initiative is industry-led, acting as a catalyst for collaboration
2. Explore establishing an independent Creative Economy Development Agency to unite stakeholders and drive growth in the creative sector
3. Build a pipeline of creative projects to be ready for new funding and ensure integration with wider city investment plans
4. Study vacant or underused buildings for potential creative sector use, including asset transfer opportunities
5. Develop a full Creative Industries & Creative Economy Strategy for Coventry with up-to-date mapping of sector scale and employment. Integrate this with a revised marketing and branding plan for the city

In conclusion: This is an important moment in time for Coventry and a timely opportunity to develop its creative sector and its positioning as a leading UK city.

Download the full report [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/45842/what-s-next-for-coventry-s-creative-industries-]