Letters to the Scottish Government ahead of the Budget
Last week we wrote to Angus Robertson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Shona Robison MSP, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, and Humza Yousaf MSP, First Minster ahead of the budget announcement on 19 December to thank them for the commitment to invest £100mil in culture over the next 5 years and urge them to bring as much of this forward into the upcoming budget for culture to prevent the potentially devastating tipping point imminently facing many of our cultural institutions.
Dear Cabinet Secretary,
I’m writing to convey the gratitude of Culture Counts, our core members and wider stakeholder group for the Scottish Government’s recent commitment to increasing Scotland’s investment in culture by £100mil over the next five years. We urge you to demonstrate this commitment by securing as much of this investment as possible for culture in next week’s budget announcement.
This funding uplift comes at a critical time for the cultural sector, many parts of which have been edging closer to a tipping point, owing to a number of factors discussed in detail as part of the CEEAC Committee pre-budget scrutiny process as well as in the media in recent weeks. These are issues of which I’m sure you will be well aware.
Given the scale of the crisis that the sector has been experiencing, and uncertainty over funding levels, this planned investment represents a very welcome and much needed vote of confidence in the sector. It provides the potential to stabilise the situation in the short term, and in the longer term to rebalance the gap caused by a decade of standstill funding, enabling the cultural sector to fulfill its enormous potential and work towards our shared goals.
Many core parts of the culture sector are approaching a cliff edge with the transition to Creative Scotland’s new multi-year funding model. Their recently published figures on stage one applications show a significant gap between the level of need and available resource. Without urgent intervention, Scotland stands to lose a number of much-loved cultural organisations with 900 jobs being at immediate risk.
No doubt this fact has informed Scottish Government’s decisive announcement on culture investment. This commitment will achieve maximum impact if as much of it as possible is provided in the next financial year. By delaying, we run the risk of allowing key parts of our cultural infrastructure to be lost, which could significantly damage our international reputation. Rebuilding will be much more costly and labour intensive in the long run, than acting to stabilise the situation now.
We understand there will be difficult decisions ahead, but you do have the power to make the choice to adequately invest in the culture sector. Culture Counts has been calling for a £104mil increase to the culture budget from 24-25 with a future target for 1% of Scottish Government’s overall spending to be provided to the culture portfolio. The First Minister’s budget announcement has provided a significant boost to morale within the cultural sector after the confusion over reinstating Creative Scotland’s 10% cut this financial year and represents a truly positive indication of faith in the sector’s work. We look forward to seeing the £6.6mil returned in the 24-25 budget, as promised, and receiving further detail of where and how the new investment will be distributed, to enable our cultural workforce to channel this renewed morale into action, for the benefit of Scotland’s economy and society.
Yours sincerely
Lori Anderson
Culture Counts
c/o Federation of Scottish Theatre
30b Grindlay Street, Edinburgh
EH3 9AX
15 December 2023
Copies of this letter have also been sent to Humza Yousaf MSP, First Minster and Shona Robison MSP, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance.