Creative clusters map

We've created the first ever map of the UK's creative clusters. This piece of work identifies the nation's top 'creative hotspots', areas which host clusters of creative businesses promoting innovation and economic growth across their region.

Click here to view the 10 maps in detail

Apart from London, the research identifies nine other creative 'hotspots' across the UK:

• Bath
• Brighton
• Bristol
• Cambridge
• Guildford
• Edinburgh
• Manchester
• Oxford
• Wycombe and Slough

Creative Clusters and Innovation

In addition to mapping creative clusters across Britain, the analysis presented in our new report shows that:

•    The creative industries punch above their weight in terms of innovation at both the national and regional level. They also tend to cluster in the same places as other innovative industries such as High-Tech Manufacturing and Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS).

•    Different parts of Britain present different profiles of creative specialisation: cities across the wider South are more diversified in their creative specialisation, whereas Northern and Midlands cities (Manchester excepting) have similar creative profiles.

Download the Creative Clusters and Innovation report

The report makes recommendations for policymakers which include maximising existing clusters rather than trying to build new ones from scratch; helping remove barriers to collaboration between cluster businesses, and encouraging universities to do more to promote innovation in increasingly tech-intensive creative industries.

Previous NESTA research has shown that creative businesses also stimulate innovation in other sectors of the economy through their supply chains.  Businesses that spend twice as much on creative inputs to production such as software, design, advertising and architecture are 25% more likely to introduce product innovations.

In the decade to 2007, the creative industries grew on average by 5.2% per year, compared with 2.9% in the economy as a whole. NESTA expects the creative industries to continue to grow at double the rate of the rest of the economy in the next five years.

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Creative Clusters Infographic design by designbysoap.co.uk