Culture Spending Tracker, June 2026 Analysis
Introduction
Welcome to the first analysis of our Culture Spending Tracker. This tracker monitors three core measures over time: local government spending on culture, Scottish Government spending on culture, and Scotland’s total public spending on culture.
As new data is released, the tracker will be updated, and a revised edition of this analysis will be published. Below, we set out the headline figures for each of these areas of expenditure over the period 2013/14-2025/26, followed by our analysis and reaction.
Navigation
Key Findings: Total public expenditure on culture | Scottish Government culture spend | Local authority culture spend
Culture Counts’ view: Diverging trajectories between national and local | How spending decisions are made | The case for a culture act
Explore the full tracker here
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Key to understanding the value of spending on culture is ongoing change in what money is worth. Elements of the analysis below are presented in both cash and real terms.
Cash terms show the amount of money allocated in each year without adjusting for inflation. Inflation is when prices rise over time, which reduces the purchasing power of money. As costs increase, the same amount of money buys fewer goods and services than it did previously.
If spending in cash terms rises more slowly than inflation, it represents a real terms (see below) reduction. Even if the cash total is higher, it does not keep pace with rising costs, so the budget buys less than before.
Real terms figures adjust for inflation, by converting them into the prices of a single base year. This enables direct comparison across years and shows clearly whether the spending power of the budget has increased, remained stable, or declined over time.
We are using 2013 as the base year. All real terms figures given below are expressed in 2013 prices, so they show what more recent figures would be worth at 2013 price levels.
Key Findings:
Scotland’s total public expenditure on culture
Between 2013 and 2025, the real terms value of Scotland’s total public expenditure on culture has fallen. At the same time, the share of total public expenditure allocated to culture has reduced.
In 2013, Scottish public expenditure on culture stood at £399.6m. By 2025, the cash total had risen to £532.7m. However, when adjusted for inflation, the 2025 figure is worth £389m. This means that despite the higher headline figure, the real terms value of public spending on culture was £10.6m lower in 2025 than it was in 2013.
The path between those two points has not been linear. Real terms spending declined steadily between 2013 and 2018, rose sharply during the Covid-19 period due to emergency support, and then fell back in 2022 as that temporary funding unwound. Since 2023 there has been some recovery. However, the 2025 position remains below the 2013 baseline in real terms.
The above is reflected in spending per head. In 2013, Scotland spent £75 per-person-per-year on culture. In 2025, the real terms value of this expenditure had fallen to £70 per-head per-year.
In 2013, Scotland allocated 1.12% of public expenditure toward culture. In 2025, this figure has fallen to 0.75%. Over this period, Scotland’s total public expenditure has grown by 45.89% in real terms, from £35.7bil to £52.1bil, driven by a rising block grant from Westminster, the devolution of new tax and social security powers under the Scotland Act 2016, and expanded capital borrowing powers. Over the period of this growth in expenditure, the proportion of the total allocated to culture has reduced by around 30%.
Unlike the volatility seen in absolute spending levels, the share of overall public expenditure allocated to culture shows a consistently downward trajectory across the period. There was a modest increase during the Covid-19 years, reflecting temporary support measures, but this was short lived. By 2025, culture’s share of total public expenditure has fallen to its lowest point in the series.
Scottish Government’s expenditure on culture
Scottish Government’s direct spending on culture has fluctuated since 2013. It fell between 2013 and 2018, experienced a significant rise (associated primarily with emergency Covid-19 spending) between 2019 and 2021, fell in 2022, and since 2023 has trended considerably upwards. This is the case both in cash and real terms.
Scottish Government culture spending was £194.9m in 2013. The 2026 budget sets out spending commitments of £337m. When those 2026 commitments are expressed in 2013 prices, they are worth £246.1m, representing a 26% real terms increase since 2013.
In terms of distribution, increases since 2023 have been focused towards Creative Scotland, National Cultural Collections and Historic Environment Scotland. It is important to note that concentration does not imply uniform growth across the portfolio. Within rising headline figures, the position of individual organisations varies. The category of National Cultural Collections, for example, encompasses a number of organisations, not all of which have benefitted equally from rising allocations.
Beyond those areas where spending has increased, there remain instances of significant real terms cuts. Notably, National Performing Companies received £33m in 2013. In 2026, their budget allocation is worth £17.9m in 2013 prices – a real terms cut of 45.8%.
Scottish local authorities’ expenditure on culture
In 2013, local government spent a total of £204.8m on culture. In 2025, spending stood at £220m. When expressed in 2013 prices, the 2025 figure is worth £160.7m, representing a real terms cut of 21.5% since 2013.
This is significant. In 2013, for every pound Scottish Government spent on culture, local authorities spent £1.05. In cash terms in 2025, for every pound Scottish Government spent, local authorities spent £0.70.
All areas of local authority culture spending have suffered, and the most significant impact has been on public libraries. In 2013, libraries across Scotland received investment of £112.7m. By 2025, this had fallen in real terms to £82.9m - a cut of 26.4%
Culture Counts view:
Diverging trajectories of national and local culture spend
The headline finding of our analysis is that, in real terms, total public spending on culture in Scotland remains lower than it was at the start of the 2010s, and since 2013, the share of overall public expenditure directed towards culture has reduced significantly.
This is of serious concern and underlines the importance of taking a whole picture view of how culture is resourced. Recent developments, not least the positive trajectory of Scottish Government’s allocations, have been undermined by inflation-driven cuts at a local authority level. Increases in the overall level of Scotland’s public spending, in both cash and real terms, have not been reflected in the total level of investment in culture.
Looking ahead, the recent election saw parties set out a range of commitments on culture, including on spending. The SNP returned to Government, with a commitment that the remainder of the existing £100 million uplift commitment will be delivered by 2028-29, with a further £50 million committed by the end of the Parliament (2031). These commitments are likely to outpace inflation and represent real terms increases in Scottish Government’s spending on culture.
These commitments are undoubtedly positive. In terms of the period covered by this tracker, this scale of investment would see Scottish Government’s expenditure on culture reach an all-time high, in both cash and real terms. It remains to be seen if these commitments will be met, how investment will be deployed, and how that deployment will address existing challenges within the sector.
Scottish Government’s spending plans could also influence the future trajectory of the 'whole picture’ measures contained within this tracker (figures 7, 8 and 9). The extent to which it is able to do so will depend significantly on the future of culture spending by local government.
Cultural spending at local authority level remains hugely challenged. Councils have a statutory obligation to ensure there is an ‘adequate’ provision of leisure, cultural and library services. But as highlighted in the EKOS report linked above, by Audit Scotland, and the in recommendations of the Public Libraries Beyond Adequate Advisory Group, the ambiguity of “adequate” leads to a lack of clarity over how councils must meet these obligations. This is undoubtedly a factor in why spending on culture and leisure services by local authorities has reduced, despite local government’s overall spending increasing. Provision around culture, heritage and libraries is clearly more exposed to cuts than other areas of provision. As such, the ongoing trend of real-terms cuts looks set to continue.
It is important to keep in mind that increased national investment is not an offsetting force for local decline. The infrastructure, delivery models and outcomes are different at a national and local investment scale. These funding centres enable different parts of Scotland's cultural ecosystem, and an increase at one level cannot substitute for a real terms cut at the other.
How spending decisions on culture are made
The trends highlighted by this tracker reflect a pattern of decision making. Decisions around cultural investment in Scotland are taken through annual budget cycles, where the case for investment is made by the sector and the public, pressed through Parliamentary scrutiny or council budget processes, and settled on that basis each year. In effect, the case for cultural investment is remade each year.
In recent years, this process has been documented in the work of the 2021-2026 Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, which reviewed Scottish Government's spending plans around culture on an annual basis. For local authorities, this process plays out 32 times across Scotland, with councils making their own decisions in the context of unique sets of pressures and obligations. In our evidence to the Culture Committee last year, we highlighted how the result of this is huge variance in spending per head on local culture services in different parts of the country (appendix iv).
Investment in culture creates direct outputs: jobs, new creative and artistic work, participatory opportunities, live performances, buildings and physical infrastructure, which in turn generate a significant and far reaching positive impact, encompassing: direct and indirect economic activity, educational outcomes, preventative health impact, community identity and cohesion, Scotland's international reach and profile, as well as a host of wider returns across public policy priorities.
But between key stakeholders around these decisions: the culture sector, the public sector, elected representatives, and the public, we lack a shared framework for understanding this - what cultural investment is intended to produce and assessing whether it has done so. In comparable areas of public policy of this scale (i.e. those represented within the Scottish cabinet), from education to health to economic development, before money is committed, there is a clear account of what it is intended to achieve: defined outcomes, responsibilities, and mechanisms to measure and report on delivery. Cultural investment operates without those foundations to a significant extent. As a result, at the point decisions are taken, the primary question being asked and answered is how much money should be allocated to culture this year? And success or failure is understood primarily on that basis.
The fact that investing in culture generates wide-reaching positive outcomes is well evidenced and understood. Recent research by Scottish Book Trust finds that across every local authority in Scotland, public libraries are acting as economic, educational and digital lifelines, in some cases the "last haven left" responding to the cost-of-living crisis, digital inequality, the consequences of the Covid pandemic, poverty and widening wealth inequality. Analysis commissioned by Arts Council Wales found that every pound of arts council spending delivered an £11.08 return on investment in terms of impact on health, wellbeing and productivity. A Scottish Government briefing on the Creative Industries records turnover of £10.2 billion and approximate Gross Value Added of £5.4 billion for the sector in 2023.
Understanding of the different possible returns that can be gained from investing in culture is reflected to an extent in existing policy, including the national and international culture strategies, as well as the culture strategies of different local authorities and their cultural trusts. But taken together, existing research and policy do not provide the type of framework that would enable decisions to be assessed against delivery rather than resourcing alone, and that would account for the returns cultural investment generates across other policy areas.
The consequences of this gap are visible in the figures across the period covered by this tracker. With no framework against which delivery can be assessed, standstill becomes an easy position to fall back on, particularly when fiscal conditions tighten. Flat cash settlements attract less political attention than cuts while producing the same outcome over time. Without a reference point that captures what investment is delivering, there is little to register that erosion in the moment it is happening.
Commitments to increased national investment in culture are a meaningful departure from a long-term pattern of real-terms decline, and are very welcome. That said, these commitments are the product of the same annual process. Under different fiscal or political circumstances, that process could just as readily deliver renewed cuts. We see this at local authority level, where on the current trajectory, real terms reductions look likely to continue rather than giving way to sustained recovery.
Evidence on its own, however is not enough to change the basis upon which spending decisions are made. It is essential, but what is also needed is a different process, where the purpose of cultural investment, the outcomes it is expected to deliver, and the responsibilities of different parts of the public sector in delivering them, are set out and held to over time.
Recognition of this position is growing across the sector. Our partners at Community Leisure UK, which represents charitable leisure and culture trusts across England, Scotland and Wales, have set out:
We know that local authorities across the country value their cultural assets, heritage, identities and opportunities for their local communities. However, with increasing budget pressures and no legal requirement for public bodies to plan, invest in, or report on cultural outcomes, there is a significant risk of disinvestment in culture, which would have disproportionate consequences in terms of the impact on the wellbeing of communities.
The case for A Culture Act for Scotland
Over the last year, through collaboration with our network and the wider sector, Culture Counts have developed and evidenced the case for the development of A Culture Act for Scotland in the new Parliament. There is a growing recognition that existing policy framework for culture is not enough to secure long term stability or to integrate cultural investment more coherently with Scotland’s wider policy objectives.
A clearer statutory footing could change the basis on which decisions are made. Instead of responding primarily to annual budget pressure, national and local government could align cultural investment more deliberately with priorities in health, education, community development and economic policy, and assess impact against agreed outcomes rather than short term financial constraint alone.
This direction of travel is not unique to Scotland. Last year we conducted analysis which found that across Europe, governments in Lithuania, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, France, Spain and the Netherlands have legislated to strengthen the place of culture within wider public policy, embedding it within frameworks that connect cultural rights, participation and investment to social, economic and environmental objectives.
Close to home, the Welsh Commission for the Wellbeing of Future Generations have recently published a Green Paper arguing that new cultural legislation is required in Wales to prevent long term damage to cultural opportunities.
There is much to learn from these approaches, but there is an opportunity here for Scotland to shape a model that reflects its own governance structures, fiscal context and cultural landscape. If the aim is to secure long-term stability, our view is that pursuing cultural legislation is the most credible route available. It could change the foundations, rather than attempting to manage the recurring symptoms of structural fragility.
The recent election demonstrated that cross-party political recognition for the need for cultural legislation exists. Three of the six parties returned to the Scottish Parliament: The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, Scottish Green Party and Scottish National Party, included commitments to cultural legislation in their respective manifestos. Together those parties hold 85 of the 129 seats in the new Parliament. The detail of their proposals differs but point to an underlying recognition shared across the political spectrum that a more joined up approach in this area is required.
A Culture Act would represent a substantive piece of public policy. Its success would depend entirely on a robust process of development that is consultative, inclusive and ambitious from the outset. It would require collaboration across different departments of national and local government, the full breadth of the sector and the wider public. That is how a shared, long-term vision can be established and translated into clear duties, defined responsibilities and agreed long term outcomes that provide lasting stability.