Statement on Funding for Culture

Culture Counts expresses its deep concern at the reinstatement of the 10% cut to Creative Scotland announced last week, and urgently calls for an end to the downward trend in public investment in culture in Scotland.

The Creative Industries in Scotland contribute more than £5 billion to the Scottish economy every year. They comprise of over 15,000 businesses employing more than 70,000 people and make a vital contribution to our health and well-being, national economy and international reputation. The return on investment in the cultural sector, in terms of economic, social and international benefits, far outweigh the current levels of public expenditure.

We welcome Creative Scotland’s decision to use £6.6 million of National Lottery reserves to prevent having to make a 40% cut to the Regularly Funded Organisations, in their next payment in 2 weeks’ time. However, this one-off intervention will only help provide short term security until the end of this financial year. These reserves were accrued for the specific purpose of supporting organisations who are unsuccessful in their application to the new Multi-Year Funding programme to transition. There will now be £6.6m less funding available for that purpose.

We also call upon the Scottish Government to confirm the funding commitment of £4 million which is still outstanding for Screen, Culture Collective and the PLACE initiative for this financial year.

We urge the Scottish Government to honour the commitment made by the First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson, to reverse the cut in the 2024/25 Budget. However, replacing this sum will only take the budgets available back to standstill levels, but with lower reserves. This means that all the financial challenges facing the sector in Scotland, as set out over the past year in parliamentary submissions, Committee hearings, and in public facing communications, remain very real.

The culture sector has been in a steady decline for over a decade due to the erosion caused by standstill funding. By taking decisive action on culture change and investment in its Budget for 2024-25, Scottish Government would ensure its long-term recovery, secure Scotland’s place as a cultural world leader and unlock enormous benefits for Scotland’s society and economy.

Cultural spending as a proportion of the overall Scottish Government budget represents less than 0.58% of total overall expenditure – one of the lowest in Europe, where the average is 1.5%. We call for cultural spending to be increased by 30%, (an additional £104 million) in the next financial year, with the long-term goal of directing 1% of overall Scottish Government expenditure toward Culture.

We encourage the Scottish Government to continue to collaborate with UK government in securing cultural tax reliefs, and to support the sector in making the case for their permanent extension.

We urge the Scottish Government to recognise the value and impacts of the culture sector, that it too has a workforce that has been experiencing consistently low and fixed pay levels and a freelance workforce that is particularly precarious and vulnerable, and to work collaboratively to deliver solutions to secure its sustainable future such as Percentage for Culture, protect and direct support for culture within Transient Visitor Levy initiatives, and rigorously explore cross policy working and longer-term funding settlements.