Lisa Nandy vows to bulldoze barriers in arts and turbocharge growth
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Culture secretary announces investment in arts at Gateshead summit and accuses Tories of stifling creative industries. UK politics live – latest updates. Arts and the creative industries will be a key part of the UK government’s drive for economic growth, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said as she promised to “bulldoze” barriers that hold back potential.
![[Lisa Nandy on stage ]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/74b2609de4b9a007d8fb01a04da2e43592282df9/0_411_8192_4915/master/8192.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Nandy gave a speech in Gateshead where she vowed to “turbocharge” the nation’s creative industries, whether film, television, music, fashion, theatre or video games. She was speaking on Friday at the first Creative Industries Growth Summit, where audience members included bosses from companies such as Netflix and Spotify and leaders of publicly funded arts organisations including the V&A and the Edinburgh international festival.
Nandy accused previous Conservative governments of not appreciating and “underpricing” the economic value of arts and culture. She said: “Every government has understood the cultural value of the creative industries. They’ve understood the social value. Very little attention has been paid to the economic potential.
“It is one thing to talk, it is another to act. The creative industries have not been shy in coming forward to tell us what is holding them back.”. Nandy said the government was “taking the brakes off” some of the fastest growing industries in the UK. “Investors like Netflix and Amazon are banging on our door wanting to invest in projects. By partnering with them, we know that we can do more.”.
