Creative Enterprise Zone

Creative Enterprise Zone

The Mayor of London announced Acton and Park Royal as one of the newest Creative Enterprise Zones (CEZ), led in joint partnership by Ealing Council and OPDC. The CEZ provides the opportunity to support and enable growth within the local creative sector, responding to specific pressures that face the creative industry including:

• Skills and employment opportunities shortages
• Business and admin support
• Affordable creative spaces
• Community outreach and engagement

Park Royal has more than 1,700 businesses and 40,000+ employees, including the emerging creative sector. Park Royal is currently home to 13 artists’ studios and creative workspaces, three large film studios, 14 smaller film, photography and recording studios, three rehearsal spaces, over ten creative manufacturing businesses, and more than 500 creative practitioners and artists.

The CEZ will work closely with local creative industries, placing them at the heart of the ongoing regeneration and development by:

• increasing creative upskilling and employment opportunities through working with young people as well as local businesses
• supporting access to and use of affordable workspaces needed by smaller makers, fabricators, freelancers, sole traders and artists who contribute to the larger creative industries ecosystem, and
• ensuring the creative industries are a representation of the local community it belongs to.

What we're up to

The Acton and Park Royal CEZ is a three-year programme and Ealing and OPDC have set out key ambitions for the CEZ that will enable, support and protect a thriving creative sector within the area over the years that follow.

We have established a CEZ Hub where space for creativity is readily available for use in Park Royal. The space is used to host workshops, training, share equipment, and promote circular and sustainable systems.

The CEZ will also play a role in matchmaking, funding, partnering and delivering on a range of projects and programmes, with the objective of addressing sector specific challenges and barriers.

The CEZ will welcomes interested stakeholders, who can make valuable contributions. See more below on how to get involved.

Open call out for ideas

We launched an Open Call in September 2023 to hear amazing ideas that support creativity in Acton and Park Royal. More than £150,000 of funding to support the best ideas was provided, and the successful projects have begun delivering their great ideas.

Find out more about these CEZ projects and how you take part or support them.

Get involved

Are you interested in the creative sector but not sure how to find out more? Are you a creative business? Does your organisation have an interest in supporting the creative industry? Or do you have an idea, initiative or project that can make an impact?

If yes, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch by emailing cez@opdc.london.gov.uk.