UK crafts sector: Economic contribution, financial support and challenges

Approximate read time: 15 minutes

On 12 June 2025, the House of Lords is due to debate the following motion:

Lord Freyberg (Crossbencher) to move a debate on steps being taken to support the craft industry.

1. What is the UK crafts sector?

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) defines the core activities of the craft sector as the creation, production and exhibition of:^[1]

• textiles
• ceramics
• jewellery/silver
• metal
• glass

Some international bodies also provide definitions of ‘crafts’. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics defines craft or artisanal products as products:^[2]

[…] that are produced by artisans, either completely by hand or with the help of hand-tools or even mechanical means, as long as the direct manual contribution of the artisan remains the most substantial component of the finished product…The special nature of artisanal products derives from their distinctive features, which can be utilitarian, aesthetic, artistic, creative, culturally attached, decorative, functional, traditional, religiously and socially symbolic and significant.

According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), crafts “involve traditional and contemporary handmade items, such as textiles, pottery, jewellery, and woodworking. Crafts often reflect the cultural identity and heritage of a community, preserving techniques and designs passed down through generations”.^[3]

2. Economic profile of crafts in the UK

2.1 Gross value added

According to statistics published by DCMS, crafts contributed £0.4bn in gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy in 2023.^[4]. This was equivalent to 0.02% of the GVA of the whole UK economy. However, limitations in the granularity of the industrial classifications used to measure GVA mean that the output of crafts in the official data is represented only by the manufacture of jewellery and related articles.^[5] As a result, DCMS suggests the official measure of the contribution of crafts to GVA “[…] is likely to be a significant under-estimate of the scale of the true crafts industry”.^[6].

Research commissioned by the Crafts Council, a national development agency for contemporary craft in the UK, sought to more fully account for the economic contribution of crafts.^[7] This work, published in 2014, expanded the DCMS estimates to a wider definition of crafts to include the contribution of micro-businesses and the contribution of crafts workers who worked outside the DCMS definition of ‘creative industries’. Under this broader definition, the research by the Crafts Council estimated that the ‘crafts economy’ contributed £3.4bn to UK GVA, or 0.18% of the total, in 2012.^[8]

2.2 Employment

DCMS estimates that crafts employed 10,000 people in the UK in the period July 2023 to June 2024.^[9] This amounted to 0.03% of all filled jobs in the UK.

The same limitations which apply to the official measure of crafts’ contribution to GVA also apply to employment. The research commissioned by the Crafts Council estimated that 43,520 people were employed by businesses involved in craft industries in 2012, or 1.3% of total employment in that year.^[10] However, it estimated that employment figure could be nearer 150,000 when broadening outside the sector itself:

Whilst craft industries employ 43,250 people in the UK, it is also important to consider those individuals working in craft occupations outside the craft industries. For example, there are an additional 9,630 people employed in craft occupations in ‘other’ creative industries (as defined by the DCMS) and an extra 96,360 individuals employed in craft occupations in non-creative industries. The combined impact of craft industries and occupations means that there are 149,500 people employed in the craft economy.^[11]

2.3 Size and turnover of businesses

Data limitations mean DCMS does not publish data on the size and turnover of crafts businesses in its annual business demographics statistical release for DCMS sectors.^[12]

The Crafts Council’s research estimated that there were 11,620 businesses involved in craft industries in 2012, accounting for 0.2% of the then-UK business population.^[13] Over 50% (approximately 6,200) of these businesses were unregistered micro businesses operating below the VAT/PAYE threshold, suggesting a strong reliance on small independent makers. Craft industries were estimated to have generated nearly £1.9bn in turnover in 2012, which accounted for 0.1% of the UK’s total business turnover.^[14]

3. Public funding for UK crafts

Public funding is available to support the UK crafts sector, including for individual makers, small businesses and cultural organisations. Sources of funding include:

• Arts Council England (ACE). ACE offers several funding programmes relevant to craftsmen and women, including:
  • National lottery project grants. Open year-round, these grants range from £1,000 to £100,000 and support a variety of arts, museums, and libraries projects, including those in the crafts sector.^[15]
  • ‘Developing your creative practice’ fund (DYCP). This fund assists individual creative practitioners in advancing their work through research, training, or networking opportunities.^[16]
  • ‘Cultural development’ fund. This is aimed at revitalising local economies through cultural investment, and supports projects that can include craft initiatives, particularly in areas with low cultural engagement.^[17]

• Crafts Council. The Crafts Council provides various forms of support to the craft sector:
  • Business catalyst (small) grants: These grants offer financial assistance to craft businesses for development and growth.^[18]
  • Opportunities listings. This is a regularly updated resource featuring awards, residencies, studio spaces, and other opportunities for makers.^[19]
  • Bursaries for global majority makers. In 2025, the Crafts Council introduced bursaries to support UK-based makers from ‘global majority’ backgrounds (including those of African or Caribbean heritage; Arabic heritage; Latin American heritage; and East Asian, South Asian and South East Asian heritage), aiming to enhance diversity within the sector.^[20]

• Government and national initiatives. The UK government has launched initiatives to bolster the creative industries, including the crafts sector:
  • £60mn creative industries boost. Announced in January 2025, this investment aims to support creative businesses across the UK, potentially benefiting craft enterprises through enhanced funding and resources.^[21]
  • Find government grants service. This is an online portal where individuals and organisations can search for government grant opportunities, including those relevant to crafts.^[22]

4. Teaching and maintenance of craft skills

Craft skills in the UK are being preserved and passed on through a combination of formal education, apprenticeships, community initiatives and digital resources.

In response to a written question about crafts training in October 2024, the government stated:

The government is committed to supporting our heritage, culture and creative industries to thrive for years to come, celebrating our nation’s wealth of talent and driving economic growth into communities across the country. We want the craft sector and British arts and culture as a whole to thrive.

As a new administration, we are currently exploring a wide range of policy options to support skills development. We are working closely with the Department for Education and engage with the heritage and skills sectors regularly in order to understand and address skills gaps. The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports traditional craft skills and training in a variety of ways, including funding projects that train people in traditional crafts and skills. They also run a Heritage Crafts programme which offers bursaries to help people train in heritage crafts or develop their skills.^[23]

Some of the formal education and specialist institutions available include:

• Royal School of Needlework (RSN). Based at Hampton Court Palace, RSN offers accredited degrees, diplomas, and online courses in hand embroidery. It also maintains a digital archive, the RSN Stitch Bank, to document and share embroidery techniques.^[24]
• Newark School of Musical Instrument Crafts, part of Lincoln College. However, the school announced in May 2025 that it would not be accepting new students onto its musical instrument craft courses for the 2025/26 academic year, citing low application numbers as the catalyst for the decision.^[25]

Apprenticeships and heritage training includes:

• The Queen Elizabeth scholarship trust (QEST). QEST provides scholarships and apprenticeships to individuals pursuing traditional crafts such as horology, bookbinding, and stonemasonry, offering financial support for training and education.^[26]
• Historic England’s heritage building skills programme. This initiative offers tiered training schemes, including apprenticeships and placements, to develop skills in traditional building crafts, aiming to reduce shortages in heritage craft skills.^[27]
• The National Trust’s heritage crafts apprenticeship programme. Launched in 2022, this program trains apprentices in stonemasonry and carpentry, providing qualifications and work placements at historic sites across the UK.^[28]
• Heritage Crafts’ apprenticeship+. This pilot project, a partnership between Heritage Crafts (a national charity for traditional heritage crafts) and the Hugo Burge Foundation, will supplement two apprenticeships—one in England and one in Scotland—each with a £12,000 financial contribution to the apprentices’ salary and a £6,000 grant to help compensate the employer for the reduction in their earnings during the training period. It was launched in early 2025.^[29]

Youth and community initiatives include:

• Craft School by Crafts Council. This is a nationwide competition encouraging primary and secondary school students to engage in craft activities, integrating with art and design and design technology curricula.^[30]
• Redbridge Institute of adult education. This offers part-time courses in various crafts, including jewellery, mosaics, and textiles, providing accessible education for adults in the London Borough of Redbridge.^[31]

5. Challenges facing the craft sector, and recent developments

5.1 Pressures facing the crafts sector

Many traditional crafts are at risk due to structural, economic and cultural pressures. These include:^[32]

• higher costs for materials and energy, a particular issue for crafts such as ceramics and glass blowing which require energy-intensive processes
• rises in the cost of living which have caused consumers to cut back on discretionary purchases
• increases in the cost of renting studios
• ageing workforces, with traditional skills at risk of being lost as older craftsmen and women retire without successors
• cuts to creative education in schools and universities reducing pathways into the sector
• limited structured apprenticeship or mentorship programs compared to other skilled trades

Commentators have also highlighted the impact of Brexit on the sector, including through:^[33]

• Export challenges such as increased paperwork and costs. Craft businesses selling to EU markets have faced new customs declarations and VAT changes. This has increased the time and cost of selling to the EU, often disproportionately affecting small makers with limited administrative capacity.
• Shipping delays. New border checks have led to delays and disrupted delivery times, which is particularly damaging for businesses reliant on timely fulfilment (such as for markets, galleries or customer commissions).
• Importing materials. Some UK craftsmen and women source specialist materials or tools from the EU, but post-Brexit import regulations have made these supplies more expensive or harder to obtain, leading to production delays or increased prices.

5.2 ‘Red List’ of endangered crafts

The latest ‘Red List’ from Heritage Crafts identifies five crafts which are now extinct in the UK, including cricket ball and lacrosse stick making, and 165 endangered or critically endangered crafts, including crystal glass cutting, rattan furniture weaving and traditional Welsh thatching.^[34]

However, Heritage Crafts also says that, as of May 2025, no crafts had become extinct in the UK since 2023, and some, including hazel basket making, reverse glass sign painting and side saddle making, had for the first time been assigned ‘resurgent’ status.^[35]

5.3 Ratification of the 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage

In 2024, the UK government ratified the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, an international treaty adopted by UNESCO in 2003.^[36] The convention aims to safeguard, ensure respect for, and raise awareness about the importance of intangible cultural heritage—what the convention defines as “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills, as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith, that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage”. ‘Traditional craftsmanship’ is one of the five domains recognised by the convention.

UK ratification was examined in a report by the House of Lords International Agreements Committee published in February 2024.^[37]

The government has said that “discussions about how living heritage is safeguarded, and by who, will take place as the Convention is implemented”.^[38]

6. Read more

• Emma Yeomans, ‘British crafts at risk of dying out—and those trying to save them’, Times (£), 13 May 2025
• Times View, ‘Endangered traditional skills are key to Britain’s sense of self’, Times (£), 12 May 2025

---

Image by Kevin Campbell from Pixabay