'Creative bank' worth £50m planned for the North

A £50m fund offering loans to creative businesses in the North of England could be set up to help "nurture and export homegrown talent".

Regional mayors across the North say the potential move, labelled the "bank of creativity", would offer a major helping hand to the sector.

One northern leader said she hoped the ambition would "turbo charge" the creative industries and help businesses struggling to gain help from high-street banks.

The potential move was revealed at a summit attended by politicians, business people and university leaders in York on Wednesday.

A new partnership board, named One Creative North, has been launched to oversee the development of the bank and promote the sector as a whole.

West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin said the fund would help "creative businesses that might not get a warm welcome from a traditional bank".

"The creative industries is already a growing sector and if you turbo charge and invest in a growing sector, you get more growth," she said.

"By backing our arts organisations to continue to nurture and export homegrown talent, we’ll deliver the economic growth the North needs and deserves.”

Ms Brabin told the BBC it was still to be "worked out" where the £50m would come from, but indicated it would be a mixture of private and public money.

The summit, held at The Grand hotel, saw the launch of a Manifesto for the North by seven elected mayors.

It included calls for a high-speed rail line to be built across the North, following the previous government's decision to scrap HS2's second phases after the London to Birmingham line is built.

BBC Yorkshire understands the new government will set out detailed rail plans - including "safeguarding" land which was initially set aside for the northern leg of HS2 - once it has finished its transport policy review.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: "Transport is an essential part of this Government’s mission to rebuild Britain and we are committed to improving rail connections across the North to support the growth our country needs."

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