Update on culture budgets
At the SNP’s party conference on 17 October First Minister Humza Yousaf announced plans to increase the Scottish Government’s investment in culture by £100million over the next five years.
The announcement followed a period of heightened discussion and scrutiny of culture spending, arising from the Scottish Parliament Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny - the first step of the national budget setting process for 24-25. The committee’s work this year received historic levels of engagement, due in large part to the growing funding crisis that has come to impact all parts of the cultural sector. We look forward to seeing the published report on their pre-budget scrutiny in the coming days,
Therefore, Culture Counts welcomes the First Minister’s announcement, the commitment to investing in Scotland’s arts and culture over the next 5 years and the endorsement of the value of culture to our society. The funding uplift aligns closely with our evidence to the CEEAC committee, which identified that an increase in culture investment of £104mil was urgently required in order to bring an end to the crisis and secure a sustainable future for Scotland’s cultural sector.
The Cabinet Secretary has confirmed that the priorities for this increased investment will be set annually as part of the parliamentary budget process and taken forward in line with the Scottish Government’s upcoming Culture Strategy Action Plan Refresh. The details of this commitment however are vital to understand where it will be directed and to enable the sector to plan ahead.
We anticipate that the first details on how the funding uplift will be implemented will available in the Scottish Government’s draft budget for 2024-25, which will be published in late December. One of the largest external factors which will influence the draft budget is the UK Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, which is set to be delivered on 22 November. This update on UK-wide spending plans will provide the Scottish Government with an indication of the size of the block grant for the next financial year.
Culture Counts would urge Scottish Government to bring as much as possible of this investment forward into the budget for 2024-25, to prevent the tipping point that many organisations stand to face next year. 2024-25 sees Creative Scotland’s Regularly Funded Organisation programme coming to an end, with many cultural organisations looking to transition to the new Multi-Year Funding Program.
Earlier this week, applications to stage 1 of the multi-year program closed, and Creative Scotland have indicated they received applications from 361 cultural organisations with a total ask of £96m per year. This is far in excess of the current £33m cost of the 119-organisation RFO network and 40% more than the total budget that Creative Scotland currently receives from the Scottish Government. The number of organisations which ultimately receive funding will be influenced by the budget that is made available to Creative Scotland from Scottish Government.
Of course, regularly funded organisations are just one part of the cultural sector facing serious challenges, so careful consideration and prioritisation of areas of greatest need will be required by all stakeholders.
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.
We are hugely grateful to our core members and wider stakeholder group who contributed to our call for evidence and have provided support over the last couple of months. We will continue to keep you updated as further details become available.