Overview
The Thames Estuary Production Corridor is a major programme that unites the creative industries across east London, the North Kent Coast and South Essex as a world-class centre for creative and cultural production: leading global innovation, generating new jobs, developing local talent for the rapid growth of the creative economy.

As part of the Thames Estuary Production Corridor our partners, Creative Estuary, use culture as a catalyst for growth along 60 miles of our Estuary spanning Kent and Essex. New commissions, creative spaces and collaborations will all support a new cultural identity, forming one of the world’s most exciting and attractive cultural hubs.

A vision for the future
Launched in 2017 by the Mayor of London with estuary partners, the Thames Estuary Production Corridor is an ambitious industrial plan to harness local talent, making our Estuary, London and the South East a world leading, innovative hub for the creative industries. With a strong legacy in manufacturing, the production corridor will become home to large-scale, cutting-edge creative and cultural production facilities for film and TV, fashion design and manufacturing, gaming and screen industries, and the arts.

ESG credentials for creative production in the Estuary
UK Government funded research commission into cultural infrastructure development (2020) created a detailed evidence base to help make the case for investment and growth within the Thames Estuary.

The Thames Estuary Production Corridor has the potential to double the size of the Estuary’s creative and cultural production sector creating the largest concentration of production activity in the UK with 50,000 additional jobs, and over £3.7 billion additional GVA per annum. So far the Thames Estuary Production Corridor has helped to unlock over £30m from central Government towards cultural production activities in the Estuary, and over £360m has been invested by the private sector.

Three large-scale cultural production ‘accelerator’ projects are in development with local partners to promote recovery, growth and employment in east London, south Essex and north Kent.

Value of the creative industries nationally:

• Pre-covid, Creative industries contributed £116bn to GVA in 2019
• Between 2010–2019, GVA contribution increased by 43.6%
• In 2019, 1 in 8 businesses are considered part of creative industries
• 95% of creative industries organisations are micro-businesses (with fewer that 6 employees)
• Self-employment within Creative industries is 32%, twice as much as broader UK economy

DCMS 2022

Value of creative industries within the Thames Estuary Production Corridor:

• In 2020, Thames Estuary Production Corridor was home to over 18,700 creative businesses
• The Estuary’s creative economy has increased by 15% since 2016
• Fashion in the Thames Estuary is growing twice as fast as the rest of the UK, with 16% growth since 2017
• The Estuary’s screen industries are growing faster than anywhere else in the UK, with 42% growth since 2017

Thames Estuary Production Corridor research commission evidence base reports on screen and fashion sectors, 2021