To move that this House takes note of the contribution of the creative industries to the Government’s growth mission and to creating jobs and productivity growth.
My Lords, it is a great privilege to open this debate. I very much look forward to the three maiden speeches by my noble friends Lady Griffin, Lord Lemos and Lord Brennan, and, of course, to the speech of my noble friend Lady Twycross. I thank the Library and the many organisations that have sent briefings to us all—many briefings, because, of course, the creative industries cover such a huge area of our national life and our economy.
Some of us will probably recall a teacher or a person who first opened our eyes to the pleasure of music, art, design, or some form of creative endeavour. In my case this was Miss Bickerstaff, who was the music teacher at Frizinghall Middle School in Bradford, which I attended between the ages of 11 and 13. She took us to St George’s Hall in Bradford to hear the Hallé orchestra. Before we went, she played some of the music to us and explained what we were about to hear. I still need only to hear the opening chords of “Night on the Bare Mountain” or “Fingal’s Cave” and I know exactly what it is I am listening to, for which I am very grateful.
Thankfully, the English teachers at the comprehensive I went on to attend bothered to take us to the local theatres. I admire teachers so much, because we must have been such an unruly bunch. We went to see not only the Shakespeare we were studying but, being Bradford, plays such as JB Priestley’s “An Inspector Calls”—I have to say, it took years for me to work out exactly what was going on in that.
While I am recalling my home city, I must, of course, rejoice that Bradford’s year as City of Culture is taking place now. The Bradford district was selected by the Government in May 2022. Bradford 2025 is taking place throughout the Bradford district, which covers 141 square miles across West Yorkshire, including Haworth, Ilkley and Saltaire, as well as Bradford itself. Bradford was also the first UNESCO City of Film, and the filming location for “Peaky Blinders”, “Happy Valley” and “The Crown”. We are one of the UK’s youngest cities; a quarter of our population is under 20 years old. Bradford 2025 is created for, with, and by the people of Bradford, and it has young people at its heart. Not surprisingly, the programme reflects youth, from education, skills and training projects to new artistic commissions centred on the lives, concerns and ambitions of young people today.
This year will see Bradford’s dynamic contemporary arts and culture, from dance and theatre to film, music and even food, because, of course, it is the curry capital of Britain. New cultural investment will have an impact long after the end of 2025. We have already seen significant investment in the region, and Bradford 2025 is set to serve as a catalyst for development, regeneration and change.
I encourage noble Lords to go to the Bradford 2025 website and to take part in some of the great activities on offer. For instance, each month a different artist will invite us to create a drawing inspired by a particular theme. I am afraid noble Lords have missed David Hockney inviting people to paint something beautiful and send it to him, but I am sure noble Lords’ artistic work would be much appreciated.
My Lords, I join the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, in looking forward to the trio of maiden speeches we have coming up in this debate. As recognised by the last Government and by this one, our creative industries are an absolute economic powerhouse, and I am sure we will hear many facts and figures and personal stories in this debate to pay tribute to that. The noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, managed to namecheck so many of the great institutions that we have in our creative industries that I shall try not to repeat that in the four minutes I have. Instead, I want to focus my remarks on the support the Government provide to the creative industries and how we can learn from the success of one aspect of that support.
In the UK, we benefit from a mixed model of funding for our arts sector: we have some state subsidy, particularly to ensure that everyone gets access across the country; we have tax reliefs, which stimulate new activity; and we have private philanthropy, which rewards and supports excellence and is something that could be extended with the right incentives in place. But, in the time available, I am going to focus on the second in that list—the success of the tax reliefs and credits that we have put in place to support growth in our creative industries.
By their very nature, our creative industries are innovative and inventive sectors and so respond well to tax reliefs which stimulate new creative work. This was recognised by the previous Government, which extended and built on the existing film tax credits to a wide range of sectors, including high-end TV, children’s TV, video games, theatrical productions, orchestral productions and exhibitions in museums and galleries. I am glad that this Government have committed to retaining them.
Each of those has a cost to the Exchequer in terms of forgone revenue—£12.5 billion cumulatively, which is not to be sniffed at. But research from industry and HMRC itself has shown that they have been successful at attracting investment to the UK that would have otherwise gone elsewhere. Crucially, the reliefs are globally competitive not just because of their headline rate but because of their perceived simplicity, consistency and speed of payment.
My Lords, I declare an interest as per the register. I thank the noble Baroness for her excellent opening speech and for securing this debate, as it gives me the opportunity to draw attention to the children’s creative industry.
First, I congratulate “Horrible Histories”, which recently received a BAFTA special award for being one of the most successful children’s programmes, influencing millions of children over the years to love and to study history.
This debate also gives me the opportunity to recognise the contribution to growth made by children’s content creators in the UK over the decades. Many are attending the world children’s market Kidscreen in San Diego this month. More than 50 UK companies will be under the banner of UK@Kidscreen, organised by the Children’s Media Conference, which helps the children’s creative industries to survive and thrive.
However, we should not be fooled by this good news, because the survival of quality children’s content is not assured. The children’s creative industry is in turmoil. Writers, musicians, actors and technical staff are not working. All our past well-loved children’s content sectors are struggling; very few have commissions and the majority of the industry is on its knees. This is because children have migrated in huge numbers to platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Also, advertising revenue has fallen on the public service broadcasting channels and is being diverted to YouTube, which does not share the advertising revenue in the same way that the conventional broadcast system used to. This means that producers struggle to generate funding for projects that previously would have been supported by the PSBs.
YouTube does offer revenue, but it is nothing like the upfront guarantees of the old broadcasting system, so the children’s industry is in a race to the bottom. Low-cost content providers, who soon no doubt will be using AI to generate their content, now dominate on YouTube. Children are watching a mishmash of content built on influencers, cheap animation and, at its worst, deeply inappropriate and harmful material that affects their mental health and well-being. The Children’s Commissioner for England’s report on the recent riots revealed that violent, harmful messages, conveyed by some of the most popular social media channels, influenced the children’s behaviour.
My Lords, I apologise for interrupting but, because there has been some ambiguity about the speaking order today and a few changes made to it, I want to make it clear, so there is no doubt, that the speaking limit for Back-Bench speeches is now five minutes.
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord; what welcome news we have just heard. We have already heard three extremely potent speeches and I agree with everything that has been said. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, for this debate. I shall be picking up on David Hockney, and emphasise, without going into it any further, the importance of copyright and AI. To creative people such as me—I declare an interest as a composer—that is fundamental to carrying on our existence.
Like other speakers today, I want to celebrate what is good and wonderful in the UK. In so doing, I hope to emphasise what needs protecting and supporting. On which subject, I look forward to all the maiden speeches but particularly that of the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, who has done such fantastic work in the other place on behalf of music. I really look forward to hearing his maiden speech and working with him in future.
As I just said, we have in the UK an abundance of creative talent but it needs nurturing, especially at the grass-roots level. That is why I ask the Minister to look carefully at the plight of small venues up and down the country, where emerging talent can be fostered. Let us go to the other extreme: in a few days’ time at the Royal Opera House, we will hear a new opera, “Festen” by Mark-Anthony Turnage, one of our most acclaimed composers. It is this wonderful mix of the grass-roots level and the Royal Opera House, or no matter where it is, that we should celebrate and preserve.
In terms of preserving, the closure of university arts departments is a terrible worry. Most recently, it was the music department at Cardiff University. It followed in the wake of other universities, such as the University of East Anglia, which has such a splendid record in literature, with Ian McEwan, Angela Carter and Kazuo Ishiguro—a Nobel laureate, no less. He has now been joined by Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Tanzanian-British citizen.
I thank my noble friend Lady Thornton for introducing this important debate and, like everyone else, I look forward to the maiden speeches that are yet to come. I remind the House of my former interest, having had most of my professional career in the arts sector, and I should declare an interest that my daughter runs a company funded by the Arts Council. My noble friend Lady Thornton gave us many reasons to be cheerful. I was delighted to hear them, and I am glad to endorse them. We are rightly proud of what our creative industries have achieved. We have been blessed—a word she used several times—for many years, and still are, by the brilliance and originality of our people, the individual performers, writers, designers, producers, technicians, musicians and many others who have changed the face of the industries they work in.
This did not happen by accident. Most of them were nurtured, initially in school and subsequently through live arts organisations, large and small, sustained nowadays by armies of freelancers who make up the rich cultural ecosystem which this country has developed over decades and which, I am sorry to say, is now significantly depleted. We should not take our brilliance in the creative industries for granted. Others are already just as good or catching up fast, and we cannot rely on our historic success to keep us competitive. I ask noble Lords to notice the variety of Oscar nominations this year, just as one example, but let us also be delighted by the continuing brilliance of Aardman Animations. Who does not love Wallace and Gromit?
We are in the middle, as others have said, of the most significant technological revolution of our time: artificial intelligence. Maybe one day it will replace human creativity entirely, as we are now being warned it might. Meanwhile, the Government define creative industries as those,
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Hudnall, and her very good speech. I declare an interest as an alumnus of Central Saint Martins, and my mother has worked in the fashion industry for over 30 years.
I will speak today on the invaluable contribution of the UK’s creative industries, specifically the fashion sector, to the Government’s growth mission, the creation of good jobs and productivity growth. Fashion is more than an art form; it is a powerful economic engine, an incubator of global talent, and a force for innovation and sustainability if done in the right way. It is an industry that deserves the full backing of government policy to realise its vast potential.
The United Kingdom is renowned for its dynamic and avant-garde fashion scene. For decades, our designers, from Vivienne Westwood to Alexander McQueen, have challenged conventions, set global trends and positioned Britain as a beacon of creativity. Our Northamptonshire shoemakers are the envy of the world. The ability of this sector to continually reinvent itself through a fusion of traditional craftsmanship and cutting-edge innovation—for example, the Manchester-based Private White V.C. and Hiut Denim in Wales—underscores its importance in the broader creative economy.
Beyond its cultural significance, the economic impact of UK fashion is formidable. The sector directly contributes £28.9 billion in GVA and employs more than 800,000 people. When considering its broader economic impact, it supports over 1.4 million jobs and £67.5 billion in GVA. Remarkably, fashion’s direct contribution surpasses that of the aerospace, defence and space industries combined. If we are serious about growth and job creation, this is an industry that cannot be overlooked.
However, to maintain and expand this success, targeted government intervention is essential. I urge the Government to consider the following measures. First, we must reinstate the trade show access programme and enhance embassy support for UK fashion companies abroad. Past programmes have demonstrated the significant returns on investment such initiatives can bring. Trade shows and sectoral missions empower businesses—particularly SMEs—to access international markets, driving growth and strengthening our global competitiveness.
My Lords, five minutes is two minutes more than you need for a song to make you laugh or cry, make you fall in love or change your life for ever, so it must be plenty of time for a maiden speech. I thank Black Rod and everyone who works in this House, including my noble colleagues from across the House, for their extraordinary kindness to me over the past 48 hours, since I was introduced to this place.
I come from an immensely privileged background. Both my parents left school at 14 but, in our working-class household, education was everything, love was everywhere and music was the soul of our family. It still is, as my wife, Amy, and daughter, Siobhan, will attest. I mentioned the staff of this House earlier. I want to single out the cleaners, who too often are taken for granted. My late mother, Beryl Evans, was a miner’s daughter who worked as a cleaner. When I was first elected to Cardiff City Council in 1991, I took her to the mayor-making ceremony in the splendid surroundings of Cardiff City Hall. Overly proud of my achievement, I showed her around the grand marble building and asked her what she thought. She looked all around the cavernous halls and said, “Imagine having to clean this”. It is a lesson I have never forgotten.
My late father, Michael Brennan, was taken from his classroom in west Cork at the age of 14 by his father to work on the family farm, to the dismay of his teachers. But he could quote Shakespeare, and imbued in me and my three siblings—Colleen, Nuala and Patrick—a philosophy greater than any I learned from books or university when he recited his own mantra:
My Lords, I warmly congratulate my noble friend on a powerful and very moving maiden speech. He will bring a wealth of experience to this House. My noble friend Lord Kinnock, one of his supporters, described him as being equally at home in the senior common room of an Oxbridge college as the saloon bar of a Welsh working men’s club. It was no surprise that his speech was about music: he is renowned as an expert on folk music, a musician extraordinaire and, possibly more importantly, the king of karaoke. We will also need to check our phones after this debate, as he became the first MP to win the social media MP of the year award, beating Nick Clegg and Jeremy Corbyn.
As he said, he is also a member of MP4, but he was possibly too modest to mention that it has raised over £1 million for charity. He is probably the only member of your Lordships’ House who has had a single that reached number two, sadly just missing that Christmas number one slot. The cover version of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was recorded under the banner of Friends of Jo Cox, who, as noble Lords know, was so tragically murdered. As my noble friend said, they are currently looking for a drummer and, if anybody from the House would like to apply, I am sure he would be grateful. They do not have to be fluent in Welsh; he has that covered.
Turning to the debate, I thank my noble friend Lady Thornton for securing it. There are many illustrations of how the creative industries have benefited local communities around the country, as my noble friend Lady Thornton so eloquently described in the case of Bradford 2025. Last week in Hull, people were still talking about the impact that the City of Culture status had on the city, as it had in Glasgow and Liverpool previously. In fact, it was so successful that the Hull City fans took to chanting to away teams, “You’re only here for the culture”—not something you hear often on the terraces. Events such as these, as well as the landmark example of the move by the BBC to Salford—the largest relocation of any public organisation this century—have had an enormous impact on employment and business growth in the area, as well as, in the case of the BBC, the multiplier effect across Greater Manchester and the north-west.
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In many ways, Bradford is ahead of the curve in bringing to reality the contribution that our creative industries can bring to our localities and regions, to economic revival and to job creation. We are part of the recently announced funding for six mayoral strategic authorities—of which one is, of course, the mayoralty of our own mayor, Tracy Brabin, who has led trade delegations and cultural collaborations all over the world and is, of course, key to the success of Bradford 2025—which bodes very well for our region.
It was a pleasure, having been in the DCMS team twice in opposition—from 2013 to 2015, and most recently with the team led by the soon to be ennobled Thangam Debbonaire as shadow Secretary of State—to be a small part of Labour policy on the creative arts, and to witness the speeches and commitment of Thangam and the now Prime Minister, my right honourable friend Sir Keir Starmer MP, to the creative community at a wonderful event at the fantastic Guildhall School of Music and Drama last year. I regard this debate, partly, as looking to see what has happened in the last year and in the very early days of our Labour Government. I learned something new about our Prime Minister at that event. He spoke with passion about how coming to the Guildhall on a Saturday morning to learn to play the flute was an important awakening for him of the importance of music and of making music accessible to all children, even one like him. He caught the train into London on his own for lessons that his parents would have found difficult to afford. So, among his many talents as our Prime Minister, he is also a flautist.
So how could the creative industries not be integral to my Labour Government’s plan for economic growth? They bring £124 billion to our economy annually. We can see those commitments taking shape, even though we inherited a chaotic economy, and that the country needs to invest in the British success story that is the creative industries. We all know that there are very real challenges. Indeed, the industry has not held back in telling us the challenges it faces in the many briefings we have been sent, but many also acknowledge what a good start we have made.
We should start by treasuring the institutions and bodies this country has created over many decades, and in some cases hundreds of years, that are the envy of the world and provide a foundation on which to build and invest. The BBC contributed almost £5 billion to the UK economy last year, supporting over 50,000 jobs. It is the largest single investor in UK-made programming, and 50% of the BBC’s economic output is outside London. The National Trust is a great British success story, caring for almost a quarter of a million hectares of land, 780 miles of coastline, and more than 300 historic houses, gardens and archaeological landscapes. It has almost 5.5 million members, and, of course, the best scones you might wish for—although I am not sure the dining room here would agree with me about that.
The Arts Council invests money from the Government and the National Lottery to support creativity and culture. However, since 2017, arts funding from national bodies has been cut by 16% in real terms, so I very much welcome the review established by my right honourable friend Lisa Nandy MP, the Secretary of State, to be led by my noble friend Lady Hodge, a former Culture Minister, to explore how to improve access to the arts and culture in all areas of the country, to drive access to opportunity.
The Edinburgh Festival in Scotland is known all over the world, is innovative, brings forth amusement, and is a huge asset to the UK, and one we need to treasure. I will also mention the University of the Arts London’s College of Fashion, which is based in east London; the National Theatre and many of our leading theatres, drama schools and performing arts venues, from the Picturedrome in Holmfirth—I declare an interest because it is run by my brother-in-law—to the Salisbury Playhouse, the Exeter Northcott Theatre, the “end of the pier” in Cromer, of which I am very fond, the Royal Hall, Harrogate, the Playhouse Whitley Bay, and my local Hampstead Theatre; the Baltic; the Glasshouse; the British Museum; the Science Museum Group and its partner museums in Bradford, Manchester, York, Shildon and Wiltshire, which have over 5 million visitors a year between them; the Tate galleries in Liverpool and St Ives, Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Tate Digital; the National Gallery; and the hundreds of small galleries, such as Cartwright Hall in Bradford, which all enrich our communities everywhere.
I need to mention Manchester, because it is already recognised as one of Europe’s largest creative digital technology clusters and, of course, has Salford. It is home to a fast-growing £5 billion digital ecosystem, and the ENO is moving to Manchester, so it is heading towards being an international powerhouse for the arts.
Wales Arts International is the international agency of the Arts Council in Wales and is a gateway between the arts of Wales and the world.
The video games industry is the fastest-growing sector in the nation’s creative industries. It is driven by creativity and innovation and generates £6 billion in gross value added. I hope my noble friend has noted the smart report from UKIE—UK Interactive Entertainment—about the upskilling and qualifications we need to create digital technologies by combining STEAM disciplines—science, technology, engineering, arts, and maths—to provide the skill set critical for a 21st century economy.
I have to end my by-no-means-exhaustive list by mentioning dance, opera, ballet and music. The Royal Opera House—under one of our Members, the noble Lord, Lord Hall—took opera and ballet out of its wonderful building in Covent Garden and broadcast it on screens all over the country and is now partnering with 150 organisations and reaching thousands of schools through teacher training. We are blessed with the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet, English National Ballet, Ballet Rambert and, announced most recently, Sadler’s Wells East—many ballet and dance schools.
I know I will be in trouble for not mentioning something or other or a genre, but I think we can say with confidence that we are blessed. Our creative industries are integral to our regeneration, and the Government recognise this and have picked up the commitments made and are running with them. As Lisa Nandy said in her groundbreaking speech at the Creative Industries Growth Summit on 17 January at the Baltic and the Glasshouse:
“Arts and culture must be for everyone, everywhere. No matter your background or the place you live, we should all be able to experience the joys that dance, theatre, music, museums, even borrowing a book from a library brings”.
From film to fashion to music and advertising, our creative industries are truly world-class and play a critical role in helping us deliver on this Government’s mission to drive economic growth in all parts of the UK, but they face challenges and that is why we need a 10-year plan.
The first challenge is skills and education, which was mentioned in almost every brief we received about this issue. From digital games to the people in the BPI music industry, via the heritage industry and our need for specialist building skills to retrofit our special buildings for our net-zero future, there is a huge challenge, which I know that my noble friend will acknowledge—and her department is of course working very closely with the Department for Education.
Secondly, there is the huge issue of intellectual property and our music industry and the importance of the gold standard IP rights framework which is enshrined in UK law. We must maintain, protect and champion this, and I hope my noble friend can confirm this is a priority.
Thirdly, there is AI. I will quote our Secretary of State:
“we hear creators’ concerns and we recognise the worry that AI is an existential threat to livelihoods. There is no value without content. I want to assure you in the clearest possible terms: creatives are at the core of our AI strategy”.
We have to remove barriers to innovation and creativity. This is a pledge we have heard from across government, and I know my noble friend the Minister will be able to put some flesh on the bones of this pledge today. It must tackle things such as space to rehearse, funding to match needs, the time it takes to create and how the apprenticeship scheme fits in with the investment that is needed to make a business thrive and work in its early years.
I am delighted that my noble friend Lady Vadera has agreed to lead us through this new chapter as the next chair of our revamped Creative Industries Council. She and the titan that is Sir Peter Bazalgette have wasted no time in setting to work on the sector plan, which is our dedicated plan in the industrial strategy that will guide us forwards.
I look forward to having this debate again in a year or so’s time when we can see what our first steps have led to and how we are taking this drive for the creative industries forward. I beg to move.
I think that point cannot be emphasised enough. Industry and government get the greatest benefit out of such schemes when they are simple and predictable. Too many forms of government support, whether it is through tax reliefs or credits or grant funding, are subject to too many different rules, criteria, application processes and timescales. We have endless—many of them put in place by the previous Government—pots and funds attempting to support sectors where we see high potential for growth, not just in the creative industries but beyond. Through a perfectly sensible desire to ensure value for money, we sometimes end up failing to see the wood for the trees and make it too difficult to access the support.
In the context of a difficult spending review coming up, I make a plea to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to make the case to the Treasury and learn the lessons of what can be and has been effective in these sectors. I am not arguing for new tax reliefs for every different sector that is as effective at lobbying as the creative industries—which the volume of emails in my inbox, as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, can attest to. But to those who either tend to see public subsidy to the arts as a nice to have rather than making good economic sense or who see tax cuts for business as revenue forgone that could have been spent on public services, I say that smart, well-designed, internationally competitive tax reliefs can make an important difference to industries for the UK that create a wider ecosystem of talent and growth.
I hope that the enthusiastic support we might hear for some of these measures in this debate today can be a lesson for the Government to take away and think of in the future.
Something needs to be done to bring us back to a situation in which our brilliant children’s creative industry can be financed to make great content. New relationships need to be built with the video-sharing platforms, encouraging them to acknowledge that they have a place in society and must make more prominent quality content that is positive, culturally relevant, age-appropriate for young people, impartial and fair. New platforms are the chief influencers of our children and they need to take responsibility for that.
The Government also have a crucial role to play before it is too late, so I ask the Minister: what consideration has been given to enhancing the children’s television tax relief from 24% to at least 34%? This would help attract investment in children’s production, particularly in the case of international platforms which no longer provide children’s content. What consideration have the Government given to encouraging platforms such as Netflix and Disney+ to donate part of their 30% European quota to children’s content—say, 10% of relevant UK content? Is this something that Ofcom could look into?
This is unlikely to solve the crisis on its own. If a level playing field for British media output is desired, some form of government intervention which goes beyond the existing PSB landscape is needed to bring into scope the platforms which children have migrated to. As I keep saying, childhood lasts a lifetime, so let us not ignore the alarm bells and the warnings, for the sake of our children’s future. I look forward to the Minister’s response and to all the maiden speeches today.
Our dramatists and actors are second to none. I went to the Hampstead Theatre the other night to see Tom Stoppard’s “The Invention of Love”. Simon Russell Beale was magnificent as the ageing AE Housman. How lucky we are. In April, David Hockney, was has already been spoken about, will have the largest retrospective exhibition ever in Paris—some 400 pictures curated by Norman Rosenthal. So, there is much to celebrate but also, I fear, much to preserve. It is essential for artists to know the rules before they break them. This is something that Hockney always maintained: —that you need to be able to draw before you can paint. Funnily enough, His Majesty the King also believes very passionately in tradition and building on the lessons of the past. Whether you are an avant-garde artist or not, knowing those basics is essential.
That brings me on to why arts and music in schools are so crucial. This is the future generation who we hope will be able—once Brexit is amended—to tour Europe, who will be writing operas for the Royal Opera House, and who will have their music on the South Bank, but that is going to happen only if we put music back centre-stage in schools, hopefully on the curriculum but, if not, let us get peripatetic teachers to teach instruments. There are precious few instruments and even fewer teachers in state schools. I believe that music and the arts must not be the preserve of the rich. They must be open to everyone. That creates a more cohesive society. In my maiden speech 10 years or so ago, I mentioned a person in Wormwood Scrubs who was part of the Koestler Trust. I had managed to get a guitar to him, and he replied to me, “Thank you so much for this gift. If I had received this when I was 17 years old, I do not think I would be sitting here in Wormwood Scrubs serving a life sentence for murder”.
“which have their origin in individual”—
I emphasise “individual”—
“creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property”.
That is a very significant element in this debate, as we have already discovered and will continue to discover. I am not going to mention the Data Access Bill, but I am just saying.
We are talking about people and what they create, which is why I want to talk a bit about education, as the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, has done already. To grow innovators in all disciplines we need an education system that actively encourages curiosity, challenge and, above all, imagination. We know that over recent years focus on the EBacc has resulted in a serious decline in arts subjects in maintained schools. I say in maintained schools because that is not the case in independent schools, and that creates its own inequalities as we go forward. I refer the Minister to the most recent figures from the Sutton Trust. I very much hope that the upcoming curriculum review will start to put that right. I mean absolutely no disrespect to teachers and school leavers when I say that our education system has been too focused on knowledge rather than on inquiry. Teachers too often feel constrained to teach to the test, and we observe too much anxiety in young people about getting things right rather than thinking independently.
Do innovation and creativity not rely substantially on brave and unexpected imaginative leaps? Arts subjects, properly taught, demand intellectual discipline and critical skill, as others have already said, but they start and end with imagination. If we are to preserve the primacy of human thought and creative originality over artificial alternatives, we must first understand, value and support them from cradle to grave and do all we can to protect the livelihoods of our creators within a thriving cultural economy fed by a healthy, diverse pipeline of new talent. If we do not, we risk losing that pre-eminence which we are so keen to celebrate today.
Sustainability must be at the heart of our strategy. A textile-specific extended producer responsibility scheme would generate an estimated £150 million annually to fund circular business models, rewarding durability and penalising unsustainable practices, sometimes known as fast fashion. This is a vital step towards the Government’s aim of achieving net zero and aligns with our broader environmental commitments.
We need to increase funding for R&D, particularly through Innovate UK, with an emphasis on direct business benefits rather than solely academic research. Full funding for SMEs participating in innovation projects would democratise access to technological advancements and drive productivity across the sector.
Post-Brexit procurement rules should be reformed to prioritise UK manufacturers, particularly in the technical textile industry. This will strengthen our advanced manufacturing capabilities and bolster industries beyond fashion, such as healthcare and defence.
Vocational education must be placed on an equal footing with academic routes. A model akin to Switzerland’s system would ensure that the skills and growth levy effectively supports apprenticeships and training, addressing industry skill gaps and equipping our workforce for the future.
Reintroducing VAT-free shopping would provide an immediate boost to the UK’s fashion and textile industries. This policy would enhance tourism-related spending, benefiting both luxury brands and local manufacturers supplying these businesses.
Capital expenditure funding, as I said, should be directed towards expanding technical textiles and advanced manufacturing. Building on the success of the regional growth fund, such investment would reinforce the UK’s position as a leader in high-value manufacturing.
To conclude, our creative industries—and fashion in particular—are key drivers of economic growth, job creation and global influence. With strategic government support, the UK fashion sector can flourish, ensuring that our reputation as a powerhouse of creativity, innovation and sustainability endures for generations to come. I look forward to the Minister’s response, and to the three maiden speeches.
and don’t forget where you come from.”
That is why I say I come from a privileged background, albeit more shovelry than chivalry. Part of that background as a young man was encountering my two now-ennobled comrades who introduced me as supporters in this House: my noble friends Lord Kinnock and Lord Murphy of Torfaen—two extraordinary people I am honoured to call my friends.
I am immensely proud to enter this House as a Labour Peer under a Labour Government, and I am proud to support that Labour Government. I am proud that my Government have put the creative industries at the heart of their economic strategy; recognising that, as well as being essential for our human souls, creativity and the arts are key components of economic growth and of what makes this country great. For too long, that essential insight has been undervalued in our national discourse. But in praising my colleagues in government, including the Prime Minister, who has spoken passionately about how music changed his life, I want to gently nudge my colleagues on the mechanism that underpins the economic success of our creative industries, namely the law of copyright in the age of artificial intelligence.
I want to make a plea for human intelligence and EI—emotional intelligence—over AI, artificial intelligence. AI is a great servant, including to the creative industries, but it would be a terrible master if we allowed it to become that. In a previous incarnation, I introduced a Private Member’s Bill in the other place, the Copyright (Rights and Remuneration of Musicians, Etc.) Bill, to update the law of copyright to ensure that musicians, songwriters and composers receive their proper share of the vast sums of money collected because of their creative genius. I declare an interest as a proud member of the Musicians’ Union and the Ivors Academy of songwriters and composers, who has received small, occasional royalties for my songwriting for the legendary parliamentary rock band, MP4.
Incidentally, I have been encouraged—not that I need any encouragement—to form a new band in this place, and various names have been suggested. The best so far is an echo of my political hero, Aneurin Bevan. The suggestion for the Lords rock band name is “Lower than Ermine”, which I thought was rather good, but I am open to further suggestions, as well as in search of a noble drummer.
Returning to the theme of the debate, I note that this House recently considered AI and the creative industries, and I simply add this: artificial intelligence creates nothing—it simply generates probabilities. There is no soul in the machine. To return to Nye Bevan once more, AI is a desiccated calculating machine. It is an exciting technology that will save lives in the field of health, but we should never allow those who profit from it to steal from the furnace of human creativity by scraping content to produce a facsimile of human creativity without reward for the artists we cherish. Rather than undermining our creators, let us consider how to enhance their value and remuneration.
In recent years, there has been a vinyl revival in the music industry. Instead of allowing tech companies to perform the equivalent of transferring a farmer’s land to an oil company for drilling without permission or compensation, let us instead introduce new VINL—voice, image, name and likeness—rights for our creators, whether national treasures such as Paul McCartney or Elton John, or new artists such as Imogen and the Knife or Welsh Music Prize-winning Lemfreck.
The creative industries are the fastest-growing part of our economy. The cake has been growing in size; let us not give it away to those who seek to steal it, and let us ensure that those who create the recipe and bake the cake get more than mere crumbs from the table.
The new Labour Government have recognised the transformative power of the creative sector in driving economic growth, and they have rightly designated it one of the vital eight growth-driving industries at the heart of their industrial strategy. The upcoming creative industry sector plan, led by my noble friend Lady Vadera and Sir Peter Bazalgette, will be of huge importance. Their proposals for tackling the skills gap will be crucial in ensuring the continued success and competitiveness of the UK’s creative industries.
The ecosystem of creative industries, however, works only if the pipeline of talent is strong, and our role as a global leader in the future depends on a sustained supply of national talent. We need to identify, nurture and develop this talent from an early age, which means that every single child in whatever school in Britain should have access to a proper creative education. I make no apology for repeating points so eloquently made by my friend Lady McIntosh. That is why the review of the curriculum announced by the Education Secretary is so vital.
The current EBacc is “regressive”, “severely limits learning”, ignores the skills needed for today’s workforce and fails poorer children. Those are not my words but those of the architect of the national curriculum, the noble Lord, Lord Baker of Dorking. A broader curriculum, giving children and young people access to music, arts and drama, will reap enormous benefits, from improved language development to confidence building. The Chancellor’s announcement in the Budget about expanding the creative careers programme, providing 11 to 18 year-olds with the opportunity to learn more about the full range of jobs in the creative sector and directly engage with the workplace, is also necessary to broaden opportunity for all. As has been said, talent is everywhere but opportunity is not.
Over the past 14 years, there has been a serious decline in students taking arts-related GCSEs and A-levels; universities are cutting creative courses or merging departments; and, according to the Sutton Trust, a higher proportion of students in private schools than in state schools are taking creative subjects at university. With fewer students in state schools taking creative arts subjects, the number of specialist teachers has also declined. Specialist art teachers in primary schools are now a rarity and very little professional development is happening. I welcome the Government’s pledge to recruit 6,500 more teachers, but what steps are the Government taking to address the recruitment, retention and professional development of music, drama, art and design teachers, as recommended by the National Society for Education in Art and Design?
Sixty years ago this month, the very first Arts Minister, Jennie Lee, presented Parliament with the first policy for arts, entitled First Steps. It therefore seems fitting that now is the time for this Labour Government to enthusiastically take the next steps.