Pru chair Shriti Vadera picked to head UK creative industries council

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City veteran Baroness Shriti Vadera is being lined up as the next chair of the Creative Industries Council, the advisory board that will help draw up policies affecting one of the government’s key growth sectors.

Vadera, who is chair of Prudential and of the Royal Shakespeare Company, will take over as the co-chair of the council next summer from Sir Peter Bazalgette, who has been in the role since 2021, alongside the culture and business secretaries. 

Vadera and Sir Peter — a former chair of ITV — have also been appointed to co-lead a task force to help the Department of Culture, Media and Sport develop the government’s creative industries growth strategy, which is expected to feed into a wider industrial strategy.

The Creative Industries Council, established in 2011, brings together government officials, ministers and business leaders to help develop policy.

The creative industries are seen as a key focus in Labour’s attempt to boost economic growth, covering areas where the UK already has a competitive edge such as advertising, design, fashion, film, software, music, publishing and television. The sector as a whole is worth about £125bn, according to government data, and employs about 2.3mn people.

Vadera said that the creative industries were “one of the UK’s most globally competitive sectors”. It is one of the government’s eight high-growth sectors in its industrial strategy, launched at the UK’s International Investment Summit last month. 

A plan for the sector is expected to be published in the spring, setting out new policies to boost growth.

The council and task force will help develop policies aimed at unlocking private investment, boosting exports and innovation, and developing skilled workforces. 

A person close to Vadera’s appointment said she was an ideal chair for the Creative Industries Council because she knew how the Treasury worked in times of tight public finances. Vadera was an adviser to the Treasury during Tony Blair’s government and then held various ministerial posts under Gordon Brown. She started her career as a UBS Warburg banker and is a former chair of Santander.

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said: “The council is an invaluable partnership between government and industry. Baroness Vadera will bring a wealth of experience in business and the arts to the role.”

Nandy and fellow DCMS minister Chris Bryant are set to meet industry executives in Newcastle next month to discuss the sectoral plan. Nandy told the Financial Times this year it was “absolutely critically important that we get it right not just because of the fragility of the sector, but also because the opportunities there are so enormous”.