Funding for Culture - Culture Counts’ Submission on the Draft Budget 2024-25
Culture Counts have submitted evidence to the Scottish Parliament Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee’s scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s draft budget for culture 2024-25.
We are extremely grateful to all the members and stakeholders who have engaged with this process and for the ongoing support and advice of our Steering Group comprising: Federation of Scottish Theatre, Festivals Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, National Theatre of Scotland, National Trust for Scotland, Publishing Scotland, Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN), and Traditional Arts Culture Scotland (TRACS).
Our response can be found in full below. The Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee’s Draft Budget paper for their meeting on 11 January 2024 can be accessed here.
Culture Counts – Response to the Scottish Government’s Draft Budget for 2024-25 for the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee – 11 January 2024
Culture Counts is a network of over 70 arts, heritage and creative industries organisations from across Scotland. Our members are largely representative bodies, as well as some events and performing companies. We welcome the committee’s continued engagement on the issue of the future of funding for culture, which has never been more vital.
Our response to the Draft Budget for 24-25 announced on 19 December 2023, builds upon our evidence and recommendations for the 24-25 pre-budget scrutiny as well as consulting with our core members and sector stakeholders for up-to-date evidence on the central issues. Due to closures over the festive break, supplementary information may be provided verbally at the meeting on 11 January.
Publication of the budget comes after huge anticipation and warnings from across the culture sector of the imminent crisis it faces. Over the last few months, the Scottish Government has made a number of funding announcements which have provided some welcome news but also brought uncertainty to the sector. The decision announced on the 27 September to reinstate the 10% cut to Creative Scotland rocked trust between the government and sector, the announcement at the SNP Conference on 17 October of £100mil investment to culture over the next 5 years was seen as a significant vote of confidence and the recent £6.68mil funding announced on 15 November, caused some confusion as most of it was understood to represent previously committed resources.
Reflections on the CEEAC Committee Report
We welcomed the CEEAC Committee’s thorough work in preparing the Pre-budget report on culture funding 2024-25 and in recognising that the ‘perfect storm’ is far from over and that sustained and significant challenges lie ahead for the sector. We also agreed that there had been ‘limited progress’ in developing new and innovative funding solutions and in taking forward a plan for cross-portfolio funding and support the call to action this urgently. However, we would have liked the report to have been more ambitious and gone further in calling to; reverse the reinstated cut to Creative Scotland this year, urgently bring forward the uplift of £100mil investment to culture over the next 5 years, and to support setting a target of at least 1% of overall Scottish Government investment in culture, which the Committee has supported in the past.
In the published 24-25 Draft Budget appendix which summarises how the submissions from the Parliamentary committees have influenced the formulation of the proposals, the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture confirmed to the CEEAC Committee that the Government is exploring the potential for additional and parallel funding streams for the culture and creative sectors, including industry-led proposals. We welcome this and look forward to hearing more on the details and participating in its development.
The Draft Budget for culture for 24-25
The total overall Scottish Government budget for 24-25 is anticipated to be £59,706.5mil. The total budget announced for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture (CEAC) portfolio for 24-25 is £331.7mil, an increase of £18.1mil or 5.8% from the current year. The funding allocated specifically to culture sees an increase of £15.9mil (8.8%) and including funding to Historic Environment Scotland and National Records of Scotland, totals £305.3mil, an overall increase of £18.9mil or 6.6%.
In the current climate, avoiding cuts and seeing any increase is an achievement; however, the 24-25 budget came down to choices and culture has not received the investment at the pace or levels needed. The impacts of real terms cuts and threats to the sector continues.
Funding to Creative Scotland and Other Arts
Creative Scotland and Other Arts has been allocated £75.6mil, an increase of £11.1mil.
According to Creative Scotland, their Grant in Aid funding settlement for 24-25 is just over £68m. This compares to £55m provided for 23-24. (Response to Scottish Government Draft Budget 2024/25 | Creative Scotland). This funding, however, includes restoration of the 10% cut of £6.6mil applied this year, and will also restore the reserves that Creative Scotland used to maintain the RFO network’s grants for 23-24. We are therefore not seeing any ‘new’ investment to Creative Scotland and standstill funding will continue to be offered to organisations supported through the RFO programme in 24-25. This means that whilst the proposed investment in culture appears to have increased overall, additional funding will not be passed down to the majority of organisations who have been warning they face a very challenging year ahead.
Funding for Other Arts within Creative Scotland’s budget provides ring fenced funding for Screen Scotland and the Youth Music Initiative. This budget also provides for other smaller cultural opportunities as well as increased revenue funding of £800k to help sustain the V&A Dundee and build its status as Scotland’s design museum.
In August 2023, Creative Scotland received applications to their new multi-year funding programme from 361 cultural organisations with a total ask of £96mil per year. This is far more than the current £33mil budget of the 119-organisation RFO network and 40% over the total budget that Creative Scotland currently receives from the Scottish Government. The numbers of organisations which ultimately receive funding will be influenced by the budget that is made available to Creative Scotland from Scottish Government from 25-26.
Shona Robison, MSP and Deputy First Minister announced during her ministerial statement on the Budget to Scottish Parliament on 19 December:
“Our aim is to increase arts and culture investment by 25-26 by at least a further £25mil”.
A significant uplift will be required to support as many of the multi-year applicants as possible and it can only be presumed that much of this promised £25mil will be earmarked for this purpose. Creative Scotland will be making final decisions on multi-year funding in Autumn 2024, most likely before the budget is confirmed for 25-26, therefore we call for clarification on how these difficult decisions will be made against unknown future funding.
Elsewhere in the cultural portfolio
We note that Major Events have been removed from the portfolio (other than operational costs for the Culture and Major Events teams) and now sits under the Deputy First Minister who has responsibility for cross-government delivery and outcomes. We support this change which may be in response to the increased costs for the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow, and reflects the broad range of policy interests, costs, and benefits of these major events, which should not take budgetary precedence over home grown cultural activity and events.
Historic Environment Scotland and National Records of Scotland see increased investment of £1.5mil apiece. Funding for Royal and Ceremonial activity, Architecture and Design Scotland and non-national libraries remains at standstill levels.
The budget for the Cultural Collections has increased by just under £4m and this is shared between the National Collections, comprising the National Museums of Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland and National Library of Scotland. Other budget areas, specifically the non-national museums have a reduction in funding of 15.1% and the capital fund managed by Museums Galleries Scotland is reduced for 24-25. This impacts 439 out of 449 of Scotland’s museums and galleries which are under increasing financial pressure and these organisations will face significant challenges in adequately resourcing their operations in the coming year.
The significant cut of over £100mil to the Scottish Funding Council will reduce funding to Scotland’s world class University Museums which could impact their contribution to research and international partnerships.
A further £700,000 goes to support the national performing companies including Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet and the National Theatre of Scotland. This is a welcome increase as funding for Scotland’s national performing companies has remained flat in cash terms since 2016-17, representing a real terms cut of over 30% in the past ten years. However, this will also have to support the International Touring Fund, which given the high costs of working internationally is unlikely to go very far.
Whilst increased investment is very welcomed and a move in the right direction, the impacts of the lack of long-term investment, coupled with continuing high inflation reduces the value and impact of this investment in real terms. In addition, the ongoing recovery from the impacts of Covid, the cost of living crisis, high energy and utility charges and the requirements to meet the increases to the Real Living Wage mean that the settlements offered are unlikely to adequately meet these costs. For those additionally continuing on standstill funding or facing cuts, the situation grows closer to an irrecoverable tipping point.
Percentage of Government spend
The Scottish Government’s budget next year is set to increase by £1.3 billion from the latest position for 2023-24, a rise of 2.6% in cash terms, or a 0.9% rise after taking inflation into account (real terms) (Scottish Parliament Information Centre Briefing).
Culture Counts noted in our evidence to the CEAC Committee’s Pre-Budget Scrutiny that the total budget to the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture portfolio in 23-24 was 0.58% of overall government spending, based on the budget figures published in April 2023. The figures for 23-24 provided in the published budget report for 24-25 show that the revised investment to the portfolio actually represents a lower figure of 0.52%.
Proposed for 2024-25 is a budget representing 0.56% of total Government spending. This appears to show little progress in terms of the percentage allocated to the portfolio. If we are to consider the funding allocated only for arts, culture and heritage, the percentage to culture of overall Government spending is even bleaker at 0.51% for 24-25.
We have consistently called for investment in culture to be increased to 1% in line with the 2019 CEAC report Putting Artists in the Picture which recommended that culture should establish a baseline target for national arts and culture funding above 1% of the Scottish Government’s overall budget, supported, on a cross-portfolio basis, in line with the recommendation of the Cultural Commission. 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%.
Local Authorities
We remain concerned regarding the funding crisis within Scotland’s councils and community leisure trusts. The £1bn funding gap experienced last year has seen spend prioritised away from libraries, community and culture and leisure services. Early December, COSLA reported that £14.4bn was required in the 24-25 budget in order to stand still.
Since the CEEAC Committee gathered evidence during pre-budget scrutiny, Community Leisure UK has been gathering evidence on the state of the sector from across its UK membership and reports that deficit budgets, lost reserves and planned closures are imminent. With ageing facilities there is an urgent need for capital investment to address maintenance needs and meet net zero targets.
The Draft Budget for 24-25 provided an above inflation increase to Local Government’s revenue funding, but also a significant reduction to its capital budget which given the evidence will impact on culture and leisure properties. We are also disappointed not to see multi-year budgets as had been previously suggested by the Government as part of the Verity House agreement.
Need and demand
We recognise that the Scottish Government has listened to evidence this year of the challenges facing the culture sector and the need for significant investment. Culture Counts called for a £104m increase from 24-25 to help mitigate the impact of the cost crisis, and reduce the risks of venues, organisations and events closing down and secure a sustainable future for Scotland’s culture sector.
We welcomed the First Minister’s endorsement of culture’s value and role at the SNP's party conference on 17th October by announcing plans to increase the Scottish Government's investment in culture by £100 million over the next five years, which could bring a halt to over a decade of decline. Culture Counts urged the Scottish Government to bring as much as possible of this £100mil investment forward into the budget for 2024-25, to prevent the immediate threats that many organisations, workforce, and artists stand to face next year.
The increased funding for culture and heritage this year from £180.7mil to £196.6mil, an increase of £15.9mil, was stated by Shona Robison MSP during her Budget statement as:
“the first step on the route to investing at least £100m more in arts and culture by 2028‑29.”
Given the warnings that have been made regarding the scale of the cost crisis facing the culture sector and the future levels of demand for funding, the culture budget for 24-25 falls far short of the investment levels called for and does not represent even one fifth (£20mil) of the £100mil investment promised, which is not being delivered at the pace or levels needed.
Culture Strategy Action Plan Refresh
After more than a year of development and consultation, 19 December also saw the publication of A Culture Strategy for Scotland: Action Plan (www.gov.scot). As we have commented previously, the sector supports a Refreshed Action Plan which puts audiences and artists at its centre and provides an inspiring forward-looking long-term vision and strategic approach to cultural activity, leadership, delivery, and funding.
The published Plan was an opportunity to show vision and take decisive action backed by appropriate levels of investment. However, whilst proposing to take forward a number of initiatives which we are supportive of such as the % for the Arts scheme, Visitor Levy Bill, cross policy working and improving data, the Plan is largely reactive and does not yet provide the level of detail required to understand how the strategic ambitions will be achieved. We are concerned that the proposals do not match with the resource available and there is a real risk that the sector will be too lean to change and respond to the refreshed Action Plan without significant investment.
The Scottish Government has consistently stated it values the role of culture to Scotland’s society and economy and is committed to supporting it. The significant focus in the Action Plan on the need to advocate and amplify the value of culture both within and across Scottish Government, and Local Authorities is therefore disappointing to see and undermines this message. Whilst we are supportive of advocacy as a means to develop key areas, collaborations and to open up additional funding streams, we aspire for Scotland’s Cultural Strategy to be outward looking, ambitious and inspiring and not be detracted by actions to make the case for culture internally.
By taking decisive action through the Action Plan on cultural vision, policy development and investment, Scottish Government would halt the decline and go some way towards securing Scotland’s place as a cultural world leader and unlock enormous benefits for Scotland’s society and economy. We remain available and committed to working with the Scottish Government, culture sector stakeholders and partners to further contributing to the development of the strategy and to realising the ambition of this investment for the benefit of all.