How can the design industry emerge stronger than ever from challenging economic times and make a major economic, social and cultural contribution to the UK? The answer lies in coordination and robust support on a national, regional and local level.

The Government believes that the creative industries are one of the main planks leading to our economic recovery. Indeed, some of the new Local Economic Partnerships have made the creative industries central to their bids to Government and the £1.4 billion Regional Growth Fund. This has to be matched funded by the private sector and proposals must focus on job creation.

The importance of a national design body to promote the value and relevance of design, and coordinate strategy and action across the sector has been recognised. But up until recently, the Design Council had a ‘red line’ through it.

In parallel the Film Council-sponsored regional screen agencies are reforming into Creative England North, Central and South. Not only will they be promoting the film and television industry but also extending their work into the rest of the creative industries. This will inevitably include design. Creative England is in many ways a sector-specific LEP, and will no doubt be bidding for RGF projects and European money.

Finally we have to add into the mix the new budget pressures on Higher Education, which will make it more difficult for them to engage with the design industry.

So although a simpler ‘landscape’ than before, it is still complicated.

One constant is the lack of coordination between the national membership bodies. They haven’t yet signed up to the Design Council’s UK Design Alliance whilst many of the local and regional design networks have. The Alliance is the first, tentative step to coordinating and supporting the actions of the networks and may be the most positive plank on which to build. The Government wants coordinated answers that cost them less and deliver more.

However the local design networks, run by volunteers, are under threat. The relatively little funding available to them is likely to shrink and it is often difficult for designers to give their skills and time when they already have businesses to run. And match funding from hard-pressed businesses is just a dream!

So perhaps a centralisation of the networks that still allows for ‘localisation’ would be a powerful tool. It would enable us to create a common purpose, build on what we already have, deliver on innovation and entrepreneurship and also, hopefully, jobs.

Fundamentally we need to join up the dots. We should build upon the Design Alliance to give it more backbone, and all of the design networks across the UK need to come together within the Alliance.

By doing this we can pool knowledge and create real partnerships between the regional networks, the Design Council, Creative England and Higher Education. This will impress Government much more than the current fragmentation and it fits well with the European Commission’s need to build design as an economic driver.

To be honest I would like to see the establishment of regional Design Councils to help bring all of this together. That means that the Design Council would have to be brave about its brand, but that is a small thing when so much can be gained. Maybe we could even have regional Design Centres based around some of the existing design incubation units, so bringing together local practitioners, undergraduates, graduates, education and policy makers.

This structure will then allow the creation of centralised strategy, policy, research and bid making that will then release funding to undertake projects that the industry really needs to do if it is to face increasing global competition, create more businesses that employ more people, and export more.

It can distribute the funding to the local networks, monitor, report and ultimately be the ‘translation agency’ between Government and the practitioners on the ground. They will have a direct route to Government and Europe, allowing the voice of industry to be heard.

All of this is not so that designers can become politicians, it is simply so that we can get on and do our jobs better, build our industry and really help deliver what it does so well – economic, social and cultural wealth.

So locally designers will have a voice, relevance and sustainable design networks that deliver properly funded programmes. Nationally we will have a coordinated design presence, with a national voice, shared strategy, relevant solutions being effectively delivered, and our proper share of EC and other funding available to do what needs to be done.

Ultimately I believe that this model offers a cheaper solution, is non-competitive to the national subscription bodies and delivers more from the design industry to our national wealth – economically, socially and culturally.