Yesterday, Neely Reyes, the founder and director of Sapphires Model Management wrote a blog for Huffington Post explaining that the immigration cap would damage the UK’s creative industries. Earlier this year we reported that a record number of international students were moving to the UK, in particular London to study fashion, design, music and film.
UK’s Creative Industries Generating £71.4 billion per year
In January 2014, the Home Office published statistics showing that the UK’s creative industries are now worth £71.4 billion per year to the UK economy. The Home Office’s key findings are:
- Since 2008 the Gross Value Added (GVA) of the UK’s Creative Industries has risen by 15.6 per cent , compared with an increase of 5.4 per cent for the UK Economy as a whole.
- Between 2011 and 2012 the GVA increased by by 9.4 per cent. This was higher than any other of the main UK industry sectors.
- UK’s Creative Industries made up 1.68 million jobs in 2012, accounting for 5.6 per cent of the total number of jobs in the UK.
- In 2011 and 2012, the creative industry has the highest rate of employment in comparison to any other industry in the UK.
- In 2011, the value of services exported by the Creative Industries was £15.5 billion (8.0 per cent of total UK service exports).
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Maria Miller commented on the statistics:
“These incredible statistics are confirmation that the Creative Industries consistently punch well above their weight, outperforming all the other main industry sectors, and are a powerhouse within the UK economy. We are committed to ensuring that the energy, innovation, skills and talent existing in this dynamic sector continues to translate into economic success, and provide a remarkable platform from which, we can showcase Britain to the world.”
Neely Reyes: Immigration Cap Restrict the Flow of Highly Talented Young People
Neely Reyes, the founder and director of Sapphires Model Management has spoken out about the Immigration cap and Rules. Ms Neely has stated that facts such as the statistics above need to be paid more attention to and not ignored. Her involvement in the modelling industry has allowed her to work with boys and girls from all over the world, which has prompted her to defend migrants who choose the UK to work and live. She stated:
“This fact seems to be ignored in the anti-immigration argument and the problem with some kind of blanket cap or applying a points based system to immigration is that it would completely restrict the flow of highly talented but young and unqualified creatives coming into the country to, at the end of the day, help grow our economy in an industry that is becoming more and more important.”
The statistics have consistently proven that the creative industries in the UK outperform all the other main industries present in the UK. Earlier this year we reported that a record numbers of Chinese students were moving to London to study fashion, design, music and film with many of them then going on to setting up their own brand labels or working for some of the world’s best known fashion houses including Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Swarovski and Dior.
There are now more than 12,000 Chinese students in London, making up the biggest group of international students in London, followed by those from America and India. The University of the Arts London, which includes the Central St Martins School of Arts and Design, London college of Fashion, Chelsea College of Arts and Camberwell College of Arts have been the major inheritors, seeing 100 per cent increase in the number of Chinese students in the past five years.
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