Creative thinking needed as sector faces budget cut
Thomas Dillon, chairman of the Creative Advantage Fund, is sitting on a pot worth £1 million which he wants to invest in local businesses based on the exploitation of intellectual property.
The fund, backed by Birmingham City Council, Advantage West Midlands and the Arts Council England, takes equity stakes in local business – and the cash it has is protected, earned from the previous incarnation of the fund which made successful exits from local TV firms Maverick and Hotbed.
But Mr Dillon warned now was a difficult time for anybody in the creative industries who has so far relied on public money.
“Almost everybody in the arts is going to suffer from a grants income perspective whichever government gets in because of the Olympic Games,” he said. “Then you have the recession on top, so I think that organisations are in for a very thin time in the creative sector.
“This will mean that there is a premium on entrepreneurship and those parts of the creative industries which can be commercial are going to have to be commercial,” he said.
Mr Dillon singled out the interactive games industry as one part of the creative sector that he thought might yield some potential investee companies for the fund.
“The interactive games industry is clearly a good prospect and one where we have a certain regional capacity,” he said.
In fact the region’s gaming industry may be feeling a tad more hopeful if the next government is Conservative as the party has thrown its weight behind initiatives to better assist companies like Warwickshire firms Codemasters and Blitz Games Studios.
Mr Vaizey has signalled that the Conservatives would look at allowing the UK games sector to join forces with the film industry to gain more clout by broadening the remit of the UK Film Council to include video games.
And although Labour last year consulted on the introduction of tax relief for the sector, which industry lobbyists claim will prevent it declining by five per cent a year, movement stalled after the Chancellor made no announcement on the subject in his Pre-Budget Report.
The Conservatives on the other hand have said they agree with the proposals designed to put the industry on a level footing with other countries around the world, hinting that a merger of video games within the UK Film Council might see it enjoy the same breaks as the film industry.
