More than £10m will be allocated to the British Fashion Council, Film London, Games London and the London Design Festival over four years, reports Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

Justine Simons (credit Greater London Authority) — Justine Simons, deputy mayor for culture and creative industries (credit GLA)

A £10.7m investment package for London’s creative industries was launched by Sir Sadiq Khan on Thursday (27th), with the goal of boosting the capital’s economy and creating new jobs.

The mayor’s funding will be allocated to the British Fashion Council, Film London, Games London and the London Design Festival over the next four years.

City Hall projects that the money will help leverage more than £2.5bn in film investment for the city, as well as up to £60m in fashion sales, up to £17m in games investment and up to £15m in sales and exports for up to 800 design businesses.

It comes as London’s cultural sector is working to revive itself after a series of economic setbacks over recent years.

Khan’s deputy mayor for culture, Justine Simons, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “There have been some shocks. Covid was a big shock, Brexit was very difficult for the creative economy – the EU is our biggest marketplace.

“So it’s really vital that we don’t rest on our laurels and we have to get behind the creative economy, turbo-boost it, keep us at the top of our game as a world-class creative capital, and that’s what [the funding] today is all about.”

Simons also shared her thoughts on the fast-growing importance of gaming in London’s economy, which will be among the industries to benefit from the mayor’s investment.

“Games is a fantastically dynamic and growing sector,” she said. “In fact, London is the biggest consumer market for games in the whole of Europe. We don’t really kind of know it about ourselves, but we are a big gaming capital.

“One of the things we’ve been doing at City Hall is investing in strategic support for the games industry. The games industry is [made up of] lots of small businesses, individuals, so what they need is those platforms to show their work, to trade.

“We’ve helped to create Games London… they produce the London Games Festival and that is a showcase for all kinds of games – it might be technical games, it might be board games. This whole industry is growing.”

In November, the O2 Arena played host to the League of Legends World Championship finals, one of the world’s biggest annual esports events.

The deputy mayor admitted that the government was facing “tough choices”, reflected in the chancellor’s spring statement this week, but said ministers were still demonstrating a substantial level of “commitment” towards supporting the UK’s creative industries.

She stressed that culture was “an essential” for London’s economy, rather than an optional extra.

“It’s worth £50bn to the London economy – one in every five jobs is a creative one,” Simons said.

“If you ask people why the come here – whether that’s to work, to live, to set up their businesses – consistently four out of five people say it’s culture and creativity that is the reason they come here.

“So it’s absolutely essential for our economic strength, for jobs, for growth. But deeper than that, it’s part of our identity as a city, it’s who we are. It’s why people come here, it creates that dynamism.

“You can see that all over the city, from a grassroots music venue, to a major stadium, to a fashion designer, to a great theatre show – it’s everywhere, it’s our DNA. So for all of those reasons, it’s absolutely essential to a successful city and a successful nation.”

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