Looking further afield for creative work? Check how you’ll deliver it

What the regional figures show

Creative work is unevenly distributed across England. Skills England’s 2026 creative-industries assessment, drawing on 2024 Business Register and Employment Survey data, puts the sector at 10.7% of employment in London and 5.4% in the South East. These figures describe the share of employment within each region. Read the regional analysis.

The report also explains a limitation: the survey primarily captures VAT- and PAYE-registered businesses and may underrepresent freelancers and micro businesses. The figures help describe the location of employment; they don’t measure the number of commissions available or establish where an individual supplier is most likely to win work. See the source and its limitations.

Plan your delivery area

Our view is that your delivery arrangements are a useful starting point for deciding where to search. Think about the work you can complete remotely, the visits you can reasonably make and the projects that need a sustained presence on site.

As an illustrative comparison, a designer might deliver an identity project through remote workshops and agreed review calls. A film team covering community events may need repeated visits, local relationships and equipment on location. The same distance can have very different consequences for those two briefs.

Before widening your search, write down the travel time you can absorb, the costs you would need to include and any local support you would rely on. Check the buyer’s actual requirements for meetings, access and delivery. An organisation’s address alone won’t tell you how the project will work.

For a temporary or fixed-term role, read the stated workplace, hours and attendance requirements separately from your preferences for project work. A role described as hybrid still needs a workable routine.

Test a wider search

Try one additional area you could serve well, then review the relevant briefs you find. Record which were practical, which needed clarification and which would have stretched your capacity. That gives you evidence for adjusting your search.

This is Tenderspot’s interpretation of published employment data, rather than a measured geographic trend in our listings.