Creative businesses and freelancers outside of London are in line for major government support to help them innovate, up-skill and attract private investment.

Six UK regions with strengths in creative industries such as film and TV, music, fashion and video games have been awarded £25 million each to grow these sectors as part of the Government’s Creative Places Growth Fund.
The announcement comes ahead of work by the newly-formed trade association, ComicBookUK, currently gathering data on the comics industry in the UK, to further bolster support for comic publishers and creators. In addition, the Comics Cultural Impact Collective has conducted another a survey of comic creators, assessing industry trends and issues.
The fund was announced in the Creative Industries Sector Plan in June, as part of the Industrial Strategy, where the Government shared their intention to invest £150 million in the creative industries of six regions outside of London – Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East, West of England, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has now revealed that the fund will be split equally across these regions to drive growth, innovation and investment. The fund will empower local Mayors to support creative professionals, businesses and young people in their communities with access to finance, mentoring and networking opportunities to help them connect with investors and skills programmes.
This is a new approach to supporting creative industries by devolving funding to high-growth potential Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSAs). The £25 million allocations will be awarded to the six MSAs over three years, starting in the 2026 financial year, for them to distribute according to local barriers and opportunities.

This is part of a whole range of support announced in the Creative Industries Sector Plan supporting creative growth across the whole of the UK, including providing business support for local creative businesses, regional skills initiatives, innovation capacity building programmes, or by providing sector specific support such as TV and film production funds.
Separately, the Government has announced that more than 100 micro, small, and medium-sized creative enterprises across twelve regions are receiving a share of £8 million in grants through the Create Growth Programme.
The grants, ranging from £20,000 to £140,000, are aimed at helping these high-growth businesses commercialise their ideas and access resources, knowledge and private investment to scale up – turning today’s growing businesses into tomorrow’s success stories.
Grants will help firms like Translating Nature, an art and design studio in Margate, and King Bee, a creative animation studio in Hertfordshire, to develop innovative new products, attract private investment and access one-to-one mentoring with industry experts.


The businesses in sectors such as gaming, music and marketing are based in Greater Manchester; Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire; North East of England; West of England; Devon and Cornwall; South East; Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Greater Lincolnshire; Nottingham and Nottinghamshire; Hull and East Yorkshire; West Midlands; West Yorkshire; and Hertfordshire.
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Comic Book UK represents the interests of all parts of the UK comic industry
• Creative Industries Sector Plan (PDF)
• The Comics Cultural Impact Collective
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Where is the connection between this fund and Comic Book UK, please?
If CBUK are “currently gathering data on the comics industry” how have they influenced the foundation of a government fund – first announced 4 months ago – that is focused on “business support for local creative businesses, regional skills initiatives, innovation capacity building programmes, or by providing sector specific support such as TV and film production funds” or on the smaller grants “aimed at helping these high-growth businesses”?
I’m not kicking CBUK (and certainly not Comics as an art form or an industry), but this is just a cut-and-paste putting them in line for credit for something that has no apparent relation to the organisation or even comics (after all, how many comics projects can you name that fit that profile?)
If there are comics-related enterprises that might be eligible, it would be great to have them named in an article like this.
Hi Simon, I mentioned Comic Book UK here on the back of chats with the team during the Lakes International Comic Art Festival about the research I know they’ve conducted, but they had no hand in my mention here. I’m sorry if the wording of my item inadvertently gave the impression they had a hand in the foundation of this fund, which they didn’t; that wasn’t my intent. But comic related enterprises should surely be as eligible for the funding announced as those in other media. I would hope that reporting on it (as I have other opportunities down the years) will lead to enquiries via the links included.
I’m well aware, also, that they aren’t the only organisation gathering date on comic readers and creators. I covered the latest survey (now closed), for example, by the Comics Cultural Impact Collective of creators last month; and the work of Lakes International Comic Art Festival, in partnership with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, supported by The Phoenix, into children’s rerading habits over several years has also been well documented.
Thanks for the clarification, John. I hope some comics projects do get to access the fund of course – just my innate scepticism battling my proactive enthusiasm in public!
It’s certainly not easy, but funding does happen. Recent case in point: Ben Dickson, for example, secured Arts Council funding for his latest graphic novel, Chamberlain, featuring art by Vincent Deporter, Fran Strukan and Valentina Briski. It’s an intriguing account of the much-maligned Prime Minister’s attempts to keep the peace in the run up to World War Two, deserving of attention. Check it out here