Birmingham City Council replies to Bennie Gray
Birmingham City Council replies to yesterday’s Post article by Bennie Gray (Pete Ashton now has the whole article by Gray).
It makes an interesting exercise to Google the names of the support schemes that councillors point to, as if one were a potential inward-investor in the city…
“the ‘Business support scheme for creative industries’” (One mention on Google — and it’s today’s Post article)
“Enterprise City high growth programme” (Four passing mentions on Google — one of these is today’s Post article. The programme has no dedicated web page or website)
“Young Person’s Enterprise Centre of Expertise” (One mention on Google — and it’s today’s Post article)
“Aston Villa FC Enterprise Academy” (One mention on Google — and it’s today’s Post article)
If one goes pro-actively Googling for schemes, one finds the Business Support for the Creative Industries (BSCI) which provided small grants to grow existing businesses. The BSCI was probably what the councillor meant when he mentioned the “Business support scheme for creative industries” to the Post’s Creative Industries reporter. Although, also via Google, one also finds that BSCI funding apparently ran out in June 2008.
There was (is?) also a Council scheme called Birmingham Interaction, which was meant to produce things like a…
“Birmingham Industry and Genius Marketplace, providing business opportunities for creative and non-creative industries; the e-creative information portal; and the Creative Channel Network, offering artists an opportunity to exhibit their work in public spaces”
… although it seems this European Social Fund project ended in Feb 2008…
“The programme runs from 1 May 2005 to 29 February 2008, and is particularly focused on supporting a range of people under-represented in the Cultural & Creative Industries (CCI) sector: females, people with disabilities or accessibility requirements, and people disadvantaged by ethnic group, location, economic, educational or social background”
It seems that Birmingham Interaction’s Creative Channel never really got off the ground. The Birmingham Industry and Genius marketplace website is defunct and domain-squatted.
Searching for more creative industries support, this time directly via the Council’s website, one finds the Creative Region Fund offering small grants. But, once again, the funding seems to have run out…
“for the time being no feasibility or creative space regional enquiries/applications will be considered, as the programme has now fully committed its funds.”
You’re right – some of these are no longer running. I’m surprised there isn’t much mention of Business Link which is now the government’s mechanism to support small business. Indeed the government want to simplify support for business rather than have a ‘raft’ of schemes as one of the councillors in the report suggests.
The key recent announcements are surely 4IP and the £1.3m to support networking and development for the Screen/Digital sector (through Screen WM with AWM funds). Anyone wanting to access 4IP has to pass through Business Link as well so there’s at least some useful joining up going on.
One key way that support from the city can make an impact it strikes me (and one I’m trying to work on in my new job at Digital Birmingham) is to focus the city’s procurement team on how the choices they make when buying goods and services can support our creative and digital sector. Spend on procurement by local authorities dwarfs that of any dedicated support programme.
Comment by Dave Harte — Thu, 30th October 08 @ 10:11 am
[...] possible solutions. The city leaders have outlined what they’re doing to deal with it (though D’log has some issues with the visibility of these projects). But a manifesto traditionally has a list of demands, some realistic, some idealistic. What would [...]
Pingback by Custard Factory - Council and AWM respond to Bennie Gray’s manifesto — Thu, 30th October 08 @ 10:01 pm
Hi Dave; thanks for the comments. I agree that 4IP looks very promising, and I’m already directing a few promising third-year students towards exploring it ahead of graduating next summer. I hadn’t realised that Business Link were acting as the gatekeepers on 4IP. Hopefully they’ll have some really good people allocated to that. I agree that public-sector council procurement can be a vital, and I wonder if big-budget industries like the state health service can also be tapped. I can imagine something like the Birmingham Children’s Hospital working with local ’serious games’ developers to provide disease-educative and coping ’serious games’ for sick kids, for instance. There might be social-networking elements integrated with such games.
Comment by site admin — Fri, 31st October 08 @ 4:06 am
[...] The intrepid D’log took on the ‘interesting exercise’ of searching online for info on all the schemes mentioned, playing the part of an interested inward investor. The results were sparse to say the least. [...]
Pingback by Created in Birmingham » ‘A challenge for Birmingham’ and a response from Birmingham CC — Tue, 11th November 08 @ 12:54 pm
[...] D’log tried looking into the schemes mentioned when Coun Summerfield responded to the issue of support for the creative sector last month. He had problems finding any useful information too. [...]
Pingback by Created in Birmingham » Birmingham arts funding — Tue, 2nd December 08 @ 12:07 pm