This page describes some of the ways that creative businesses in the UK find the funding to get their ideas off the ground. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of funders, but it does mention a few key bodies who may be able to help. The British Council does not fund creative businesses directly, but our Creative Industries Unit is working to increase opportunities internationally.

Developing a climate where financial support for the creative industries is as available as it is in other industrial sectors is central to the sustainability of a creative economy. It is an issue which continues to be debated within the UK.

Most creative businesses are established using personal savings, family investment and, occasionally, by “angels”, private investors who often invest on a project-by-project basis. Many businesses will borrow from high street banks to supplement these resources. The 2000 European Union-funded report, Banking on Culture, examined in detail the issues facing the cultural sector in terms of its access to finance.

This and other research suggests that the financial services industry remains risk-averse and unable to easily assess the viability of a highly entrepreneurial creative business, which may only exist for the development and delivery of a specific project and which often sees creativity as the most significant driver for its activities. So access to funding from traditional business sources is more difficult for the creative industries.

In 2001 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport published Banking on a Hit, its report on finance for the music industry.

The Prince’s Trust has been a particularly important source of funding for business start-ups within the creative sector. It has a range of schemes, one of which provides a start-up grant, others provide training, with one scheme focusing specifically on the music industry.

Funding for creative businesses also comes through a variety of local and national agencies. At a national level these include the Arts Councils in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which provide bursaries to artists and support other creative businesses in a number of different ways. In England the Film Council has a number of funding schemes.

NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, was established in 1999 and invests in ideas it believes will give a return: commercial, social, cultural or all three. It seeks to create a climate where ideas flourish because they're exciting and original, not because they're safe. It has already made over 300 awards to people from across the creative sector and is rapidly becoming a major investor in innovation for the creative industries.

The creative industries are not unique in having to overcome barriers to traditional funding sources. The ethnic minority communities in the UK have also had to address the issue of access to finance for small businesses. The Ethnic Minority Business Forum is working closely with the Small Business Service to resolve this issue. The nature of this discussion is of real importance to the creative industries both because of barriers that they face and because a growing number of creative businesses by people from ethnic minority communities.