Craft Petition

Dear WI

Please see below information taken from NFWI News regarding an e-petition that NFWI is urging members to complete:

“Petition on craft and the creative industries

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has proposed that ‘crafts’ should no longer be considered part of the creative industries, as part of proposed changes set out in a Consultation paper Classifying and Measuring the Creative Industries. Large numbers of craft businesses are sole-traders, many of whom fall below the VAT threshold, which makes data collection difficult. Because of the difficulty in capturing an accurate picture of the craft sector, ‘crafts’ has been removed as a category. 

Crafts make a significant economic contribution; the Craft Council estimated that the income for craft-making businesses in 2011 was £457m (just less than London’s West End theatres). There is concern that the failure to recognise crafts as a specific category for measurement will result in it being less visible than other creative industries, and will mean that government, craft makers, craft agencies and organisations have no agreed source of data that can depict the scale and importance of the craft sector.

The NFWI is asking members to sign an e-petition urging the Government to reconsider. Please circulate this to members. The petition is open online until 8 August, and can be accessed by following this link,

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49537.”

Regards

Carol

Carol Overton

Federation Administrator

Warwickshire Federation of Women's Institutes

Federation House

1 Corunna Court

Corunna Road

Warwick CV34 5HQ

tel: 01926 419998