£100 million to Scotland's Arts and Culture Budget

We welcome the announcement today by the First Minister and the commitment to investing in Scotland’s arts and culture over the next 5 years.

An additional £100 million closely aligns with the amount that Culture Counts has been calling for on behalf of the culture workforce and audiences in order to secure a sustainable future for the culture sector and meet the strategic ambitions.

We look forward to seeing the detail of this and would urge the government to direct it to where it is most needed and bring as much as possible of this investment forward into the budget for 2024-25, to prevent the tipping point that many of our much-loved organisations face next year. Our long-term goal continues to aim for 1% of overall Scottish Government expenditure towards culture. This will bring us closer to the levels of investment across Europe, where the average is 1.5%.  

Translating this renewed statement of ambition into long-term action has the power to reverse the impact of 13 years of real terms reductions, to help culture play the central role in the lives of people across Scotland that is much needed in difficult times.