Tees Valley Combined Authority Creative Economy mapping

Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) – the local authority (council) for this region in northeast England – needed evidence to inform and justify its local creative and visitor economy growth programme. 

To successfully deliver such a complex initiative, it needed through the policy research and development process to bring together an alliance of stakeholders to join up public policy and funding for Tees Valley and the wider Northern Corridor together with strategies being developed with creative and cultural partners including the BBC, local universities and local cultural leaders. 

It also needed to leverage in investment from national public funds (historically below the national per capita average) as well as attracting and retaining creative talent, entrepreneurs and private investment to the region.  

The creative and cultural policy our evidence informed needed to link to a tourism and destination management policy being developed in parallel by another consultancy.  

Working with creative sector specialists, 5th Sector, and our financial benchmarking partners, MyCake, we set about creating the most extensive mapping of a region’s creative economy that has yet been achieved. 

Based on the approach and methodologies set out in the Creative Places guide we produced for local authorities (councils) for England’s Local Government Association and our sector value chain model which underpins our UK National Cultural Data Observatory project, we: 

• Mapped the strengths and opportunities coming from a very broad interpretation of what are the tangible, intangible and human assets and resources available to the local cultural sector and wider creative economy 
• Identified emerging creative clusters where additional support could create critical mass in investment, activity and local and tourist demand 
• Spotted and diagnosed the causes of gaps in local workforce and capacity that could then be addressed through specific interventions 
• Pulled together stakeholders and evidence from across arts, culture, heritage, media and digital sub-sectors which had not be collaborating before and not been considered together as a holistic creative and cultural economy 
• Tracked how development pathways for creative and cultural careers to retain local talent and build an authentic sector reflecting the region’s culture – its modern diversity and heritage 

• Our sector mapping provided the evidence base to justify TVCA’s £20m investment into its creative and cultural sector 
• It informed the design of critical elements of the programme including capacity building for creative entrepreneurs and producers to develop more ambitious business and funding proposals 
• It identified the strength of consumer demand for the region’s culture from neighbouring parts of England, providing balance between these key voters and taxpayers and out-of-region visitors 
• It provided the economic narrative and evidence for a strategy based on developing local ecosystem capacity as well as investing in tangible capital assets 
• Since the growth programme was launched, an additional £xm of additional investment has been achieved from Arts Council England and National Heritage Lottery Fund