Experience and the creative industries paving the way for economic and social growth

The London Growth Plan – Experience and creative industries paving the way for economic and social growth

Richard Coburn 06 Mar 2025

The much-anticipated London Growth Plan[1] published last week sets out how the London Mayor and London Councils aim to grow London’s economy by £107 billion by 2035. In doing so, the Plan aims to increase productivity growth rates by an average of 2% per year whilst increasing the export value of London’s services by 6% per annum. Central to these aspirations is the targeting of and investment in four ‘super sectors’, two of which are creative industries and the ‘experience economy’.

The Experience of Growth

We are going to hear more and more about the ‘experience economy’. But what is it and what does it offer the economy and communities of London and beyond?

The Cambridge dictionary defines it as:

‘An economy in which many goods or services are sold by emphasising the effect they have on people’s lives’[2].

In truly academic style, Harvard University define experiences as the ‘fourth economic offering’ after, and additional to, extracted commodities, manufactured goods and delivered services thereby implying that the ‘experience economy’ represents the next stage of economic evolution[3]. Recently, at a fascinating event hosted by Heart of London Business Alliance (HOLBA), Dr Bo Bernhard from University of Nevada in Las Vegas coined the sector as the ‘fun economy’ In fact, he suggested that the fun economy constitutes upwards of 14% of Gross World Product which is equivalent to five times the size of the global automotive industry and is growing at nearly 10 times the rate of the world’s pharmaceutical industry[4].

What should be included (or excluded) from the definition of the ‘sector’ is beyond the purpose of this blog. However, the experience economy clearly has its foundations in the UK’s rich endowment of cultural, creative and music industries. Indeed, the London Growth Plan identifies creative industries as a growth sector separate (but complementary) to the experience economy. It highlights that the experience economy is not explicitly identified as a priority sector in the emerging UK Industrial Strategy whereas creative industries clearly are[5]. As already highlighted, the Growth Plan prioritises ‘investment in culture’ as a key driver of the experience economy. Consequently, it is the author’s view that creative (and cultural) industries, and the experience economy should be targeted as a collective entity, particularly as they both are promoted to drive the export focus of the Plan. Indeed, it should be highlighted that the Labour Party in its 2024 manifesto sector plan for the arts, culture and creative industries claimed that 73% of overseas visitors to the UK identified our ‘cultural offer’ as their main reason for coming[6]. More recently, demonstrating the Government’s growing commitment to boosting cultural and creative economy, in January 2025, the Culture Secretary (Lisa Nandy MP) unveiled immediate support for the sector including £270 million ‘Arts Everywhere’ fund including £85 million for urgent capital works to keep venues running[7].

Irrespective of how the two sectors are classified in the Growth Plan, their importance in the London economy have been elevated to the share the same level of priority as the Capital’s mighty financial, professional and business services sector.

Without a doubt, today we are seeing the economic value of experience and culture growing into niche technology driven and innovation-hungry activities such as gaming, film & TV studios and immersive reality through to increasingly sophisticated forms of retail, tourism, sport and other forms of entertainment. The huge success of ABBA Voyage speaks for itself.

Putting its definition to one side, the fact remains that the existing size of the experience and creative sectors and, more importantly, their growth potential is substantial. With investment in essential hard and soft infrastructure, human resources and a proactive planning regime, London is well positioned to consolidate itself as the world’s leading hub for concentrations of the creative and experience economies. Moreover, London can lead the way in demonstrating how the huge economic dividend from the experience economy can grow and be shared by the UK’s diverse network of unique and vibrant cities.

With this in mind, it is not surprising to the World Experience Organisation (WXO) hosting the London Experience Week with London & Partners and The Mayor in late April/ early May: London Experience Week — WXO. Interviewing WXO vice-president (Marketing), Samantha Fay after the HOLBA event, I asked her if there is more to the experience economy than ‘fun’ that happens to generate economic growth:

The experience economy isn’t just about growth—it’s about sparking creativity, building skills, and unlocking future careers in design, immersive tech and entertainment across the capital. Investing in culture and experiences gives young people new opportunities, fuels innovation, and cements London’s place as the global hub of experience-led business. The London Growth Plan is a chance to supercharge the experience economy— creating moments that make people feel more alive, fuel business success, and leave a lasting impact.

Samantha Fay, VP Marketing, World Experience Organisation

More than economic growth – enriching lives & rejuvenating communities

In the prevailing political climate, the primary attention given to the experience and creative economy in its leading role in turbo charging the economy is firmly legitimate. However, going back to the dictionary definition presented earlier, it is critical not to lose sight of the considerable and unique wider contribution the sector can make to the social fabric of communities, the enrichment of lives and the creation of opportunities for people that otherwise would not be realised. Indeed, in recent and ongoing research[8] conducted by Lichfields for The Lowry in Salford, the Birmingham Hippodrome and Conservatoire, Gateshead Glasshouse and Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena, it has been become abundantly clear that the businesses, charities and organisations that make up the cultural, creative and experience economy offer a potential to nurture diverse, positive social impacts which are unmatched by other sectors.

Taking a snapshot of some of the social and community benefits delivered by cultural and creative organisations across the UK (outside of London), provides a taster of the metropolitan wide impact the ‘creative and experience’ sector can have on the lives of Londoners, particularly young people and those most in need of support:

Increased access to culture and experience: not just do venues require investment in improving physical access for those with mobility challenges, but they also need the infrastructure to deliver specially planned events for those with particular needs. For example, through the refurbishment of King’s Theatre in Edinburgh, Capital Theatres are planning dementia-friendly performances accompanied by welcoming and safe environments that can engage and improve the quality of life of our ageing population.
Last year, The Lowry in Salford delivered over 3,200 sessions across learning and engagement programmes reaching 22,000 adults and 10,200 school children.
In Manchester, contributions by Co-op Live made to initiatives such as Concerts for Carers and Tickets for Troops included the donation of free tickets to over 12,000 NHS workers and 4,000 armed services personnel.
As part of its legacy to Manchester following the hosting of the 2024 MTV European Music Awards at Co-op Live, Paramount Media Networks committed significant funding to the creation of a new MediCinema in a local hospital – an innovative new community initiative recently securing the BAFTA award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema[9].

With the London Growth Plan now in place, through focused support for and investment in the cultural, creative and experience economy, London has the unique opportunity to drive forward economic growth whilst genuinely enriching the lives of people that have previously been marginalised. Whilst improving the lives of London’s most excluded communities is a worthy policy objective in itself, doing so at the same time as boosting productivity and stimulating growth of our city’s most dynamic economic sectors presents a golden opportunity for London over the next 10 years.

Implementing the London Growth Plan

The London Growth Plan is promising in its support for the creative and experiences sectors. It is also refreshing to see that a more dynamic approach to the definition and articulation of sectors is finally beginning to shine through in important metropolitan plans like this one. In today’s economy and the society underpinning it, the operation of economic ‘sectors’ is one of integration, overlap and inter-reliance. Consequently, the multi-faceted characteristics of today’s economic activities must be matched by equally multi-faceted and flexible policies and support systems.

Of particular note is the need for planning policy and economic development strategies to ‘catch-up’ with the economic forces they are aiming to shape. In the case of London, the Growth Plan will need to be translated into decisive spatial and land-use policy instruments in the new London Plan. These should include:

Comprehensive identification of policy-protected spatial clusters of arts, cultural, creative and experience clusters.
Prioritisation of development and regeneration activity in these clusters related to arts, cultural, creative and experience related uses. This should include streamlined and flexible planning policies and application procedures which accelerate, reduce risk and enhance viability of priority development.

Development and adoption of the next London Plan will take some time and it not programmed for adoption until 2027. Consequently, it will be important for London Boroughs and cultural, arts and experience organisations to work collaboratively, in shaping the Plan and in jointly promoting sound proposals which will contribution to the growing economic and social contribution of new projects. These should include:

Early identification and development of outline business cases for proposed new venues and attractions including major experience projects.
Immediate preparation of local growth strategies, including cross boundary collaboration based on spatial market operations.
Extension of the Mayor’s creative enterprise zones concept to broader areas across London including development and change of use incentives such as streamlined planning requirements and business rate relief for specified activities.
Lobbying GLA and Central Government for dedicated capital and revenue funds to support the rejuvenation and growth of the sector in order that the Mayor can invest in culture and the wider sector in accordance with the Growth Plan. Importantly, such funds should allow for investment in the upgrading and improvement of existing, ageing cultural assets alongside financial support for new venues, attractions and experience projects.
Pursuit of collaborative, integrated initiatives to blend physical and planning initiatives with targeted spatial programmes of skills development, education, talent development, digital and AI strategies joint bids for public funding.
Consider how best charitable organisations can maximise impact through the blending of their offer with commercially orientated activities and sponsorship.
Actively pursue and increase community and schools outreach programmes to communicate and engage key social groups (particularly but not exclusively young people) to participate in the sector with a view to achieving economic, well-being and inclusive outcomes.