The Liverpool City Region has secured £25m in government funding to boost its creative industries.
The funding, part of the Government’s new Creative Places Growth Fund, will support businesses across film, TV, music, and gaming in the Liverpool City Region, helping them to innovate, upskill, and attract private investment and will be distributed by Mayoral Strategic Authorities over three years, starting in the 2026 financial year.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “From music and TV to gaming and film, the Liverpool City Region has creativity running through its veins.
“Our world-famous culture is recognised right across the globe, and we’re already home to some of the most talented people and pioneering businesses in the UK.
“This funding will help us go even further – creating new jobs, attracting more investment, and giving local people the chance to showcase their skills on a global stage.”
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The Liverpool City Region is home to more than 50 active gaming companies, including industry giants like Sony’s PlayStation.
It is also the most filmed location in the UK outside of London, thanks in part to the LCR Production Fund and plans for the Littlewoods Film and TV studios.
The Creative Places Growth Fund is part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, which includes £150 million investment across six regions outside London: Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester, the North East, West of England, West Midlands, and West Yorkshire.
The new funding for the creative industries comes as Liverpool announces a “bold and ambitious” 10-year blueprint to create tens of thousands of jobs and add £10bn to the Liverpool City Region economy this afternoon.
The Liverpool City Region Growth Plan is “a roadmap to increasing wages, driving investment, raising living standards and providing better services for the region’s 1.6 million residents.”
Increasing productivity is at the heart of the plan, which if raised to the national average would alone add £6 billion to the city region’s £43.3 billion-a-year economy.
This will be achieved by building on the city region’s world leading innovation while accelerating growth of its most productive sectors including advanced manufacturing, health and life sciences, digital and technology and the creative industries supported by maritime, professional and business services and the visitor economy.
The plan points to the city region’s £11bn investment pipeline and the Life Sciences Innovation Zone and LCR Freeport, under a shared Industrial Strategy Zone status, as key drivers for growth.
It also highlights numerous eye-catching opportunities within life sciences, digital and tech, creative industries, advanced manufacturing and clean energy with the potential to turn the dial on productivity.
These include the ambitious £550m Health Innovation Liverpool (HIL) development that will bring 2,200 jobs and deliver more than £1bn in economic benefits, and the 10-fold expansion of Daresbury’s cryo-plant to create a new National Cryogenics Facility to serve a global quantum computing cluster.
Rotheram added: “Nobody on the doorstep has ever asked me to explain my growth plan for the city region – but this document is possibly the most important strategic document we will ever produce.
“Our Growth Plan is a blueprint for a fairer, greener, more prosperous future – one where ambition, partnership and determination come together to create jobs, power homes with clean energy, and give every child the chance to reach their full potential here.
“I know the word ‘growth’ can often feel a bit abstract – it doesn’t mean much to ordinary people in their daily lives. What really matters is what growth means in practice. It’s about jobs you can build a life on, opportunities for your kids and grandkids, new homes you can afford to live in, investments in public transport and investment that brings prosperity back to our communities.
“This is our moment to show the country what we can achieve when we back ourselves, invest in our own future, and build the infrastructure for the next generation.”
