Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding was provided to the creative industry in the West Midlands by (a) capital and (b) project grants and by (i) county and (ii) county per head in each year since 2015.

The Creative Industries Sector Plan includes a universal offer to drive growth in the creative industries in any place in the UK and announced £380m of targeted government support over the Spending Review period.

The £150m Creative Places Growth Fund will be fully devolved to 6 Mayoral Strategic Authorities, including the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), to empower local leaders to grow their creative industries and unlock creative skills, jobs and investment opportunities. Shropshire Council is a non-constituent member of WMCA and is not currently within the funding boundary of WMCA. The devolved nature of this fund will enable local leaders to allocate this funding according to local barriers and opportunities, which may include areas beyond funding boundaries.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has provided specific support to the West Midlands through the Creative Scale-Up Pilot (CSUP) and the Create Growth Programme (CGP), providing grants of £1,300,000 and £945,000 to the WMCA and access to direct financial support from InnovateUK on a competition basis with £20 million available across 12 regions. Distribution of CGP and CSUP funding at the county and county per head level is handled by the delivery partners (WMCA and Innovate UK) and is not held by DCMS.

Since 2015, DCMS has delivered UK-wide funding programmes available to businesses and organisations in the West Midlands and Shropshire area, including the UK Games Fund, UK Global Screen Fund and Music Exports Growth Scheme. The Supporting Grassroots Music fund is also available to applicants based in England. Funding is delivered to businesses by the delivery partners and DCMS does not hold data at a regional level. The Sector Plan announced expansion of these programmes for 2026-2029.