Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 38
Despite the potential for the creative industries to help drive the Government’s Levelling Up agenda,...
Conclusion
Despite the potential for the creative industries to help drive the Government’s Levelling Up agenda, funding and support for arts and culture emulates the broader geographic disparities that affect the UK economy and society as a whole. The Government and its arm’s-length bodies have taken some welcome steps to redress this imbalance. However, we are concerned that outside London and the South East, there are areas still not receiving the necessary investment to support their own local and world-class institutions, while in London and the South East, grassroots organisations in deprived areas are experiencing serious financial risk due to a handful of organisations receiving significant proportions of public funding.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges concerns regarding sustainability and accessibility of funding for the arts and culture sector over the long term, and welcomes the government listening to recommendations regarding guaranteed funding and the broadened scope for bidding areas.
Paragraph Reference:
38
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
As set out in the response to the previous recommendation, government policy does not take a different funding approach to ‘national’ as opposed to ‘regional’ or ‘local’ organisations. However, organisations are expected to undertake activity at an appropriate scale according to their size and status, and as such Arts Council England would expect very large organisations to have more significant outreach plans than a very small organisation. We would also note that every region already enjoys world- class cultural and wider institutions. Conclusion: Despite efforts to rebalance the geographic disparities in investment in arts and culture through flagship funds and competitive grants, we share concerns with the sector regarding the sustainability and accessibility of funding over the longer-term. We welcome that the Government has listened to our recommendations regarding guaranteed funding and the broadened scope for bidding areas aspiring to be the UK City of Culture as an important start. However, without further reconsideration as to how the sector can be supported beyond the current rounds of support, it is likely that many areas of the country will see their local cultural organisations continue to struggle. (Paragraph 57)