It has long been recognised that industrial clustering benefits businesses by giving them access to skilled staff and shared services, and the opportunity to capture valuable knowledge spillovers. This is equally true of creative businesses, as exemplified by Hollywood, or closer to home by a host of thriving UK clusters, from post-production in Soho to video games in Dundee.

This report is the most ambitious attempt yet to map the UK’s creative clusters, showing where they are, which sectors form them, and what their role is in the systems of innovation where they are embedded. It makes a case for a new approach to local economic policy as it relates to the creative industries: one that goes beyond ‘urban branding’ rationales, and acknowledges their great potential as active players in local innovation systems.