"Participate in the UK's Financial Access Opinion Poll: Express Your Opinions"

"Participate in the UK's Financial Access Opinion Poll: Express Your Opinions"

The Creative UK Access to Finance Survey, designed by Creative PEC, Creative UK, and BDRC, is now live and aims to gather data on financial barriers and investment behaviors faced by businesses in the UK’s creative industries.

This survey is crucial for understanding how creative businesses use finance and how they can be better served. Professor Hasan Bakhshi MBE, the Director of Creative PEC and Professor of Economics of the Creative Industries, explains that the results of the survey, to be published later this year, will be important in shaping our understanding of how creative businesses use finance.

The survey seeks to understand the challenges in accessing finance in different creative sectors and across the UK's nations and regions. Experience suggests that access to finance is one of the most common factors identified by creative industries businesses as a barrier to growth.

Participation in the survey is important for creative businesses because it helps highlight the specific financial needs and barriers within the creative sector. This sector, contributing around £125bn annually and nearly 6% of GDP, is a significant part of the UK economy.

By sharing their financial experiences and investment decisions, creative businesses contribute to a stronger evidence base that can influence government and industry initiatives aimed at increasing inclusivity, diversity, and growth within the sector. The survey data supports the development of policies and programs tailored to overcome investment barriers, such as improving access to finance, making funding programs more visible and easier to navigate, and addressing behavioural barriers among creative enterprises.

The survey only takes a few minutes to complete and can be accessed at this link: Creative UK Access to Finance Survey 2024. The survey is anonymous, but respondents have the option to share their contact details.

The Creative UK Access to Finance Survey aims to capture responses from all creative sectors and all regions across the UK. Strengthening the evidence base for creative industries through this survey may help policymakers respond more effectively to business calls for investment support, ensuring that financial products, policy measures, and support services effectively meet the needs of the creative industries, helping sustain and expand this economically and culturally vital sector.

Dr Josh Siepel, an Associate Professor in the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex Business School, is also contributing to the economic analysis of the survey results. The survey aims to understand what types of finance different companies use, the ways in which companies use finance, and the barriers they face to accessing the finance they need to grow. There is a gap in the evidence base regarding access to finance for creative industries, which this survey aims to help address.

1. The published results of the Creative UK Access to Finance Survey, conducted by Creative PEC, Creative UK, and BDRC, will be crucial in shaping our understanding of how businesses in the UK's creative industries use finance, particularly in relation to access barriers.
2. The survey data will not only support the development of policies and programs aimed at increasing inclusivity, diversity, and growth within the creative sector but also help policymakers respond more effectively to business calls for investment support.
3. Access to finance is one of the most common factors identified by businesses in the creative industries as a barrier to growth, and participation in the Creative UK Access to Finance Survey can help highlight specific financial needs and barriers within this sector.
4. The Creative UK Access to Finance Survey, which aims to gather responses from all creative sectors and all regions across the UK, may help strengthen the evidence base for creative industries, potentially leading to the creation of financial products, policy measures, and support services that more effectively meet the needs of the creative industries.
5. By taking the Creative UK Access to Finance Survey 2024, creative businesses can contribute to a stronger evidence base that can influence government and industry initiatives aimed at providing better finance access and supporting the growth and sustainability of the UK’s creative industries, contributing significantly to the UK economy (around £125bn annually and nearly 6% of GDP).

Read also: