NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, has launched Creative Credits, a funding scheme allowing businesses to hire creative firms across Manchester at subsidised rates. But photographers and sole traders are specifically excluded from the scheme.

The scheme will pay £4000 towards the commissioning costs of new creative work. But the work must be done by a 'registered company or partnership with a valid registration number', excluding the vast majority of photographers who are sole traders. The website lists the type of businesses that can carry out the work, and while many of them offer photography as one of their services, those whose only business is photography are also excluded.

NESTA told Redeye that they wanted businesses to be registered because it was the easiest way to check that a business was a going concern. But they also said they've had a large number of requests to extend this scheme to cover sole traders. While they won't make any changes to this round of funding, they are considering changing the criteria next time the scheme takes place, expected in February 2010.