At a Creative Industries Federation breakfast launch attended by our CEO, Nicola Solomon, Business Secretary Greg Clark reinforced the message that the creative industries are vital to the UK’s future. BBC Worldwide Director Tim Davie spoke about the ‘ideas economy’.
We were also pleased to see the emphasis in the report on protecting intellectual property rights and promoting copyright education, with Culture Secretary and SoA member Matt Hancock saying ‘Intellectual Property underpins a strong market economy’. We were also glad to hear him acknowledge that ‘making sure creativity can be paid for is mission critical’. This chimes strongly with our own C.R.E.A.T.O.R. campaign.
Other concrete proposals include working on monetising revenues from use of content by platforms and access to finance and training for individuals and small businesses: we will work to ensure that some of the money from the proposed funding and training initiatives go to individual authors, writers, illustrators and translators.
It wasn’t all about the money – we also liked Matt Hancock’s acknowledgment that ‘you can’t code empathy and creativity’ and very pleased to read this statement: ‘We are committed to ensuring that all children enjoy a broad and balanced curriculum, of which creative education is a key part.’ This was a key plank of our own response to the Industrial strategy consultation (see below for a downloadable copy).
We will be working to ensure that the report benefits members and continuing to push for further measures to assist the work of all our members. In the meantime, you can read the full report and let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or by emailing info@societyofauthors.org.