You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
The Society of Authors and The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society have joined calls for a UK Creators’ Council to help inform future policy making and are backing a "specific, flexible" Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Recovery Plan for the creative industries following Covid-19,
The move comes in response to the DCMS Commons Select Committee’s inquiry into the impact of Covid-19 on the cultural and creative industries.
The SoA and ACLS have joined with the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) and the Writers Guild of Great Britain (WGGB)—alongside The British Equity Collecting Society (BECS), The Design & Artists Copyright Society (DACS), Directors UK, Equity and The Musicians’ Union (MU)—to produce a 3,500-word report requesting an "all-encompassing approach" to support the cultural and creative industries.
The organisations jointly asked for the development of "a specific, flexible DCMS Recovery Plan", backed by fresh resources from HM Treasury and aligned to a long-term Industrial Strategy, "taking in the needs of each of our creative and cultural industries to set a course for confidence, recovery and growth".
As part of this, they said the government needs to understand the support required by freelancers and the self-employed, "given their importance to these sectors and the fact that this group of workers has grown faster than any other in the whole economy". Currently too many who are self-employed in the creative industries are falling through "gaps" in the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), the report said, noting portfolio careers need to be factored in and urging that the issues with the eligibility criteria for the scheme must be addressed as it was leaving many people vulnerable with "inadequate" Universal Credit as a last resort.
Rallying for further funding also, while commending the Arts Council's responsiveness, the organisations noted many who applied for grants were unsuccessful and "the resources available are a drop in the ocean set against the existential challenge the sector and individuals face". "Individuals in our creative and cultural industries, who underpin their success, do need wider support," the report said, "including easily accessible grants and loans, tailored to the specific circumstances, characteristics and needs of these vitally important sectors."
The report said it was hard to exaggerate the importance of the cultural and creative industries, citing a contribution of £143bin in Gross Value Added to the UK economy in 2018, representing 7.5% of the total. However it continued that, according to research from Oxford Economics published last week, the creative industries are projected to be "impacted at least twice as hard as the rest of the economy" by the crisis, facing losses of £74bn in turnover and £29bn of GVA in 2020.
Renewing its calls for the establishment of a UK Creators Council, which it proposed to the DCMS on 20th April in a letter, the submission read: "As membership organisations, we do not have a place on the Creative Industries Council, despite representing the workers who are the lifeblood of our cultural and creative sectors. Yet we are uniquely placed to offer our expertise and resources constructively to assist DCMS in supporting the artists, writers, directors, musicians, performers and other creators affected by the crisis and on which these industries depend, together with the further challenges ahead for the UK’s creative economy. This holistic approach, we feel, would aid the Department and far better inform policy making, now more than ever.
"A comprehensive Recovery Plan will need to look outwardly, as well as at the creative and cultural base within our country, its nations and regions. It will be essential, for instance, to maintain a world-leading framework for copyright and the protection of intellectual property in the digital world, as a key foundation of the UK’s success, and to ensure this is promoted robustly during the ongoing negotiations on our future international trading relationships."
SoA chief executive Nicola Solomon commented: "I am really pleased that the SoA has been able to work with such fantastic organisations and produce such detailed written evidence to inform policy making as we move to the economic recovery phase.
"We must see the government engage positively with member organisations like the SoA and others, and it cannot ignore our policy proposals as representatives of over 330,000 members working across writing, publishing, art, design, music and theatre.
"As well as setting up a UK Creators’ Council, supported by fresh funding and a proper Industrial Strategy, I was pleased to see our report end with a call for strong copyright protections to be maintained, so soon after the government’s opening of formal trade talks with Australia.
"We must not see intellectual property standards bartered away in this and other trade deals. They are vital for ensuring that authors and creative professionals can earn a living from their work."