"Warning over 'real damage' from culture funding cuts" - Culture Counts' response to public service reform on The Herald front page

We are delighted to see Culture Counts’ response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on Public Service Reform featured on the front page of today’s The Herald. Headlined “Warning over ‘real damage’ from culture funding cuts: Ministers urged to use ‘extreme caution’ over efficiencies”, the feature begins:

The Scottish Government is being warned it risks damaging the country’s “national and international reputation” if the culture sector is targeted for savings as part of its public sector shake-up.

Industry body Culture Counts has urged ministers to approach "efficiencies" in the arts sector with “extreme caution” due to their potential impact.

It has suggested that any cuts inflicted on the sector would erode "already fragile infrastructure" and amount to “fiddling at the margins at wholly disproportionate cost”.

The piece continues:

Setting out its concerns in a 13-page report to Holyrood’s public service reform committee, Culture Counts said the only “likely savings” in the culture sector would be “negligible in scale and would be made at the cost of real damage to the sector”.

It has told MSPs that the proportion of Scotland’s public expenditure allocated to culture had been reduced by around a third since 2013, with a “growing gap” emerging between support from the government and local authorities.

It said: “In 2013, for every pound the Scottish Government spent on culture, local authorities spent £1.05. In cash terms in 2025, for every pound the Scottish Government spent, local authorities spent £0.70.”

The dossier lodged with Holyrood suggests that culture delivers significant social, economic and preventative value, realised via a proportionally tiny and shrinking share of overall public expenditure.

The whole article can be read via The Herald and Culture Counts’ full response via our website.