This research published by DCMS explores the role of culture, sport and heritage assets, and investment in driving positive economic and social outcomes at a local level.
The report finds, at page 36, that ‘the density of cultural and heritage assets was highly and positively related to the density of firms in a local economy, indicating that where there are high densities of theatres, museums, monuments and so on, we tend to find concentrations of economic activity. Further, the density of cultural assets is found to be positively and strongly related to the net in-migration of businesses, which suggests that such assets are important ‘pull’ factors which influence location decisions. These findings hold regardless of the urban scale at which they are examined: cultural assets are equally important as attractors in non-major urban areas as in major urban areas and this suggests that the observed results are not simply a reflection of general urban agglomeration effects’.
The report goes on to state that ‘there is a significant and positive relationship between the density of creative firms and their performance as measured by levels of turnover, and density of heritage assets and cultural events… the existence of cultural and heritage assets creates direct commercial opportunity for creative firms, but also adds to the wider amenity value of a place’.
The report concludes that ‘the existence of and investment in CS&H assets can be seen to be important influencers of place-shaping. The precise mechanisms through which this influence is exerted (i.e. the nature of the impact ecosystem at an asset/investment and local level) require further investigation. However, we can clearly see that places that contain a greater density of CS&H assets and receive higher per capita CS&H investment are more likely to build a strong creative sector. They also are able to attract businesses to locate in local places more effectively than others and/or slow the rate at which businesses out-migrate to other locations’.