• Creative industries are the fastest growing sector of the UK economy, contributing £10.5 bn to the economy. A total of 284,000 creative firms account for 11.8% of all businesses in the UK and over two million jobs. 35% of the workforce is self-employed and the majority of firms employ fewer than ten people.
• Many creative firms are found in clusters across the UK working in sub-sectors such as advertising, architecture, crafts, design, film/tv/radio, museums/galleries, music, performing arts, video games and heritage.
• Providing 1 in 11 jobs and growing at double the UK average rate of job creation, the sector has an important role to play in local employment, housing markets and regeneration. We have ranked the clusters based on the proportion of gross value added (GVA) creative industries contribute to the local economy and then looked at house price growth in those locations over the past year and last five years.
• 14 of the top 20 creative cluster locations outperformed the UK average in terms of house price growth over the last five years. Those which underperformed have then over-performed during the past year (with the exception of Slough/Heathrow and Cheltenham).