Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (): The Levelling Up White
Paper outlined the Government’s intention to tackle cultural
disparities and ensure that everyone, wherever they live, has the
opportunity to enjoy the incredible benefits of culture in their
lives. I am therefore pleased to announce a series of measures
which will transform the landscape for arts and culture, to
ensure that it benefits everyone. These measures build on a range
of funding provided by the Government to support culture,
including the unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund – the largest
investment in the arts in this country’s history – and are as
follows:
Increased funding for Arts Council England to support
Levelling Up
The Levelling Up White Paper explained
that additional funding announced at Spending Review 2021 for
Arts Council England will be invested in creativity and culture.
This extra funding will be invested in levelling up areas over
the next three years, including via the Arts Council’s 2023–26
National Portfolio funding round. (The National Portfolio is a
group of organisations that gets regular funding from taxpayers
via the Arts Council.)
Levelling Up for Culture Places
DCMS and Arts
Council England have identified over 100 Levelling Up for Culture
Places, based on areas of historically low cultural engagement
and spending. Where possible, Arts Council England will
prioritise its increased spending in these places over the
Spending Review period (April 2022 – March 2025). This will
ensure that more people and places have access to cultural and
creative opportunities. A list of these places will be published
on Arts Council England’s website.
Increasing support for Levelling Up
The
organisations which receive the greatest level of public subsidy,
all of which are nationally and internationally renowned, will be
expected to increase the total proportion of their combined
impact in Levelling Up for Culture Places by 15% by March 2026.
Support for expansion outside London
Arts
Council England will detail plans to support London-based
applicants which wish to move, expand, or establish new activity
outside London. For some organisations, this will be an
opportunity to establish themselves in some of the many other
brilliantly creative parts of the country. It is right that
organisations which constitute the National Portfolio help to
deliver a truly national cultural offering.
We want arts and culture to be open and accessible to everybody.
Cultural funding comes from taxpayers across the country, so
people across the country should all have the opportunity to
enjoy it – whether as artists, audiences, educators, or the new
generations of talented people who will help to sustain and
extend the creative brilliance for which our country is rightly
renowned. The measures we are announcing today will help to make
that happen.
