UK Government Launches Finance Package to Support Creative Businesses
Initiative seeks to break down barriers to investment and unlock growth capital
The UK Government has introduced a major finance package designed to address long‑standing challenges creative businesses face when trying to access investment. The initiative represents a significant expansion of government support for the creative industries and forms part of the ongoing delivery of the Creative Industries Sector Plan. It was launched alongside The Big Creative UK Investment Summit in London, underscoring its role in unlocking growth capital and enabling ambitious creative firms to scale.
At the centre of this package is a strengthened role for the British Business Bank (BBB), which is increasing its support for creative firms as part of the £4 billion it has secured for Industrial Strategy priority sectors. This move is intended to boost lending and investment across creative fields, widen access to suitable finance products, and ensure public finance institutions offer more tailored support to the sector. As part of the new measures, BBB has committed £45 million to Redrice Ventures, a specialist seed‑stage investor focused on creative industries. This investment is intended to help channel early‑stage funding to businesses with high‑growth potential across areas such as media, design, digital content, publishing, fashion and more.
The bank is also exploring options to use its existing financial guarantee capacity to support lending secured against intellectual property, aiming to encourage innovation and help overcome a barrier often faced by creative firms relying on intangible assets. The support package also includes actions to ensure creative companies can access coordinated help throughout their business lifecycle. BBB is working with Innovate UK and other public bodies to align grant programmes, early‑stage funds and scale‑up finance so that businesses can navigate different forms of support more seamlessly. This work includes convening sector stakeholders, such as creative business owners, finance providers, and public finance institutions, to better understand investment opportunities and how the creative finance ecosystem can be strengthened.
By helping creative sector organisations identify relevant grants information to prepare strong proposals, GrantFinder ensures that organisations across the UK can make the most of transformative investment such as that provided by the UK Government.
