Creative industries

Coventry Creative Industries strategy 2026 to 2029: Appendix 1

Delivery plan

These delivery priorities have been identified through sector consultation and the Coventry Creative Industries Mapping Document as the ones with the biggest potential impact and realistic resource allocation. It should be noted that some of the delivery will require external funding to be secured, and all the stakeholders should be supporting this process, including high level advocacy.

It should be noted that at the moment the delivery plan is very much focusing on investment and funding already in place to support the creative industries sector, including the CreaTech Frontiers Programme, CCC creative economy budget for 2026, and other initiatives by University of Warwick and Coventry University. The objective is to seek further funding, especially through the £25m Creative Places Growth Fund (CPGF) allocated by the WMCA across 2026 to 2029.   

The PPF partnership below refers to an application to Arts Council England Place Partnership Fund programme. This application was submitted on 12 January, with outcome expected by the end of April. This project is a partnership between Coventry University, University of Warwick, Coventry City Council and Culture Coventry, with associate partners including Coventry Cultural Education Partnership and Coventry Culture Works Cultural Compact. If successful, the funding will cover a 3-year extensive skills development programme across visual arts, music and createach.

Theme 1: Business, clusters and networks

The desired long-term impacts

Coventry has a thriving and financially resilient creative industries sector, with businesses and freelancers being supported, and contributing to the economic prosperity of the city and region.

Key objectives for the 3 years

  • Addressing current issues around business support
  • Dedicated support for freelancers and micro businesses with a portfolio career
  • Access to finance and entry to markets 
  • Business supported with environmental sustainability
  • Having a strong cluster development body in CWX
  • Facilitating growth in the six Coventry priority sub-sectors
  • Securing more investment (e.g. WMCA, Innovate UK, UKRI, DCMS, AHRC) to support overall objectives & activities

Key activities/timeline (Years 1 to 3)

  • CreaTech Frontiers delivering targeted specialist business support for adoption of new technologies, networking, grants and brokering links with related high-growth industries e.g. electric vehicles. (Y1 to Y3)
  • Council’s future Local Enterprise support supporting creative micro-businesses & freelancers (Y1 to Y3)
  • Council’s creative economy team to deliver a business booster programme for cultural & creative businesses (Y1)
  • Securing future funding for CXW as a creative industries cluster development body for Coventry & Warwickshire (Y1)
  • Dedicated programme of music industry development by Council creative economy team incl. Music Mixer networking events, Coventry Music Network support, export support (Y1 to Y3)
  • Creative Industries mixer, conferences or networking events (Y1 to Y3)  
  • Cross-sector industry sprints (Y1 to Y3, pending Arts Council PPF investment)
  • Ensuring environmental sustainability grant & funding opportunities shared with sector businesses (Y1 to Y2)
  • Networking opportunities through CWX and others (Y1 to Y3)
  • Securing further investment (Y1 to Y3)

Resources & key delivery partners

  • £7.2m AHRC funding secured for CreaTech Frontiers over 5 years. Regional partnership including University of Warwick & Coventry University
  • WMCA’s £25m Creative Places Growth Fund allocation (detail know April 2026)
  • Arts Council England Place Partnership Fund bid (outcome know April 2026) with funding towards business skills & music industry networking opportunities
  • Coventry & Warwickshire Exchange CWX (until May 2026)
  • CCC’s future Local Enterprise support offer, likely to entail giving support for creative micro-businesses and freelancers 
  • CCC and other environmental sustainability grants & advice (e.g. sustainability audits)
  • New music industry partnership with Leicester
  • Existing Council creative economy budget for 2026 to 2027
  • Business Growth West Midlands business support offer
  • Regional cluster development activity – mechanism still TBC
  • Coventry Music Network
  • Culture Works Collective cultural compact

KPI’s

  • Level of investment secured for business support including cluster development
  • Number of business births & survival rates
  • Number of businesses supported/scaled up
  • Number of freelancers supported/scaled up
  • Number of new cross-sector partnership
  • Number of businesses accessing grants & other support to improve environmental sustainability
  • Number of networking events/year
  • Level of exports and/or inward investment
  • Level of other investment secured

Theme 2: Skills and workforce development

The desired long-term impacts

  • Creative industries are improving outcomes and tackling inequalities within communities, which means that Coventry has a highly skilled and diverse creative industries workforce, with the leadership of organisations reflecting the diversity of the city.
  • Coventry creative industries benefit from high student retention.

Key objectives for the 3 years

  • Targeted skills development activities based on industry needs, including training, mentoring, work-placement, apprenticeships and internships – with a specific focus on diversifying the workforce & freelancers    
  • Coordinate a city-wide approach to creative skills development & student retention, including alignment with industry needs, existing skills gaps and the need to address the diversity of the workforce

Key activities/timeline (Years 1 to 3)

  • CreaTech Frontiers delivering targeted skills support for adoption of new technologies and other creative industries skills (Y1 to Y3)
  • Creative Futures Incubators providing Incubator for Createch SMEs; coaching, mentoring, CPD, workspace for creative startups.
  • Council’s creative economy team to deliver a music industry skills programme (Y1, provided PPF funding secured)
  • PPF partnership to deliver curator & digital archivist bootcamps (Y2, PPF funding TBC)
  • PPF partnership to deliver paid work placements/music, visual arts and createach (Y2, PPF funding TBC)
  • PPF partnership to deliver creative career awareness activity in schools (Y1 to Y3, PPF funding TBC)
  • PPF partnership to deliver a Createch for Artists Programme (Y2 to Y3, PPF funding TBC)
  • Securing further skills investment, including opportunities to support apprenticeships in the creative industries (Y1 to Y3)
  • Deliver a series of meetings with key stakeholders to develop shared and coordinated approached to student retention together with the industry (Y1 to Y3)

Resources & key delivery partners

  • £7.2m AHRC funding secured for CreaTech Frontiers over 5 years. Regional partnership including University of Warwick & Coventry University
  • WMCA’s £25m Creative Places Growth Fund allocation (detail know April 2026)
  • Arts Council England Place Partnership Fund (PPF) bid (outcome know April 2026) with funding towards music industry & visual arts skills development  
  • Coventry & Warwickshire Exchange CWX (until May 2026)
  • Creative Futures Incubators
  • CCC Skills support offer, adult education provision & Job Shop
  • Coventry College delivering creative industries skills programmes
  • Both University of Warwick and Coventry University running creative industries degree courses  
  • Coventry Cultural Education Partnership
  • Coventry Music Network
  • Culture Works Collective cultural compact

KPI’s

  • Number of new jobs/type of jobs/jobs safeguarded 
  • Number of skills development opportunities (training courses, work placements, internships, CDP, etc.)
  • Diversity of workforce & leadership of organisations engaging with delivery
  • Level of other investment secured to support skills development
  • Shifts in graduate retention for creative industries
  • Level of skills shortages

Theme 3 - Places and spaces

The desired long-term impacts

Creative industries businesses & freelancers in Coventry have the affordable specialist workspace they need to operate efficiently & to deliver a wide range of specialist activities benefiting our economy & people.

Key objectives for the 3 years

  • Maximising the use of existing space in the city, to address issues around affordable creative industries workspace
  • Explore the opportunity to create specialist creative industries working space in Coventry (e.g. film studio)
  • Ensure Coventry is a film friendly city and maximise on film tourism & branding opportunities 
  • Improve access to existing specialist spaces, technology and equipment
  • Improve the environmental sustainability of existing creative industries spaces where possible

Key activities/timeline (Years 1 to 3)

  • Using available data, coordinate mapping of affordable workspace opportunities in the city (Y2)
  • Coordinate improved access to existing facilities with relevant stakeholders (e.g. Universities) (Y1 to Y2)
  • Work closely with Production Central regional film office to promote Coventry as a filming destination (Y1 to Y3)
  • Ensuring the creative industries needs are articulated to the CCCG partners (Y1)
  • Ensuring environmental sustainability grant & funding opportunities shared with relevant spaces (Y1 to Y2)
  • Securing further investment and exploring opportunities for new specialist spaces (Y1 to Y3)

Resources & key delivery partners

  • The capital part of WMCA’s £25m Creative Places Growth Fund (detail know April 2026)
  • WMCA Culture and Creative Infrastructure Programme (CCIP) 2025 to 2027
  • The new City Centre Cultural Gateway project led by CCC
  • Arts Council England capital programme (timeline TBC)
  • Production Central film office
  • National Lottery Heritage Fund capital programmes
  • CCC Cultural Infrastructure Mapping report 2024
  • WMCA Cultural Infrastructure Map (2022)
  • WMCA Meanwhile Use Framework consultation (ongoing as of January 2026)
  • Coventry University spaces including Delia Derbyshire building
  • University of Warwick campus & facilities

KPIs

  • Sqm of affordable workspace unlocked
  • Increases/decreases in creative workspaces & other specialist creative industries spaces

Theme 4: Tourism, visitor economy and branding

The desired long-term impacts

Coventry’s creative industries contribute to the city’s visitor economy and are key to promoting the city through storytelling, contributing to the economic prosperity of the city and region.

Key objectives for the 3 years

  • Creative industries are considered as key vehicle for building the city’s visitor economy and promoting the city through storytelling
  • Establish e-Sports as a major events opportunity for Coventry
  • 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
  • Explore the options to host major national and international cultural/ creative events and PR campaigns to raise the profile of local creative industries. Strengthen links between culture, heritage, and the visitor economy to create integrated overnight stay and tourism models, leveraging the region’s diverse assets.

Key activities/timeline (Years 1 to 3)

  • Develop a creative industries project pipeline for the city of both capital and revenue projects, embedding into the wider city regeneration plans (Y1)
  • Explore the opportunities to build a coherent music and film tourism offer (Y2)
  • Explore the opportunities to develop a major eSports event in Coventry (Y2)
  • Explore the opportunities to create new immersive experiences (Y2)
  • Explore the opportunities to host international creative events or conferences in the city (Y1 to Y3)
  • Securing further investment (Y1 to Y3)

Resources & key delivery partners

  • Destination Coventry
  • The new Coventry Tourism Strategy (in development)
  • Key city visitor attractions
  • eSports/University of Warwick
  • WMGC
  • Coventry Music Network

KPIs

  • Qualitative impact of creative industries in city promotion and visitor perception
  • Steps taken to develop tourism offer around creative industries (e.g. film and music tourism)

Theme 5: Public funding, city development and policy

The desired long-term impact

  • Coventry is taking a strategic approach to creative industries, operating a successful sub-regional cluster and positioning the city as a creative-industrial hub. This includes maximising the Council’s role as a partner, enabler and civic leader
  • The opportunities and synergies between creative industries and other priority growth sectors are fully realised, including securing investment to maintain a thriving creative sector.

Key objectives for the 3 years

  • Securing further investment to support creative industries strategy aims
  • Piloting new ways of bringing creative/tech clusters, universities, public sector and other stakeholders together more effectively – including cross-sectoral working 
  • There is an established creative cluster development body in the city with a Cluster Manager in place
  • Build a pipeline of creative projects to be ready for new funding and ensure integration with wider city investment plans
  • Alignment with other key strategies in the city

Key activities/timeline (Years 1 to 3)

  • Ensure creative industries strategy is considered in the development & delivery of other relevant strategies and city plans (Y1 to Y3)
  • Explore the opportunities to secure funding for a pilot project focusing on cross-sectoral working. (Y1 to Y2)
  • Instigate exploratory work to consider how to support cluster development in the long-term, including for a co-funded cluster development manager/officer (Y1)
  • Mapping of potential funders across different activity strands to create a shared plan with key partners & stakeholders, allowing us to bid for larger/strategic projects together (Y1 to Y3)

Resources & key delivery partners

  • Coventry City Council
  • University of Warwick
  • Coventry University
  • CWX
  • CreaTech Frontiers
  • Other Council partners
  • WMCA
  • National funding opportunities & programmes

KPIs

  • Level of funding secured/won
  • Level of private capital leveraged
  • Number of policies being informed by the creative industries strategy aims/level of consultation
  • Completion of project pipeline
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