Agenda item

Council Contribution to the Cultural Sector

A citizen asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture: What detailed assessment has the Council conducted of the potential impact of the proposed ending of contributions to the cultural sector, particularly in relation to the potential limitations it may impose on the career aspirations of young people and the overall economic and cultural well-being of our community?

Councillor Pavlos Kotsonis replied as follows:

Thank you.  This relates to a proposal for the ending of grant contributions to the cultural sector. At present, the proposal to end all such annual awards, a sum of £190,000 for 2023-2024, is out for consultation. This will enable us to better understand the impact and allow affected organisations to submit relevant information to us. The consultation will therefore inform councillors when they do need to take budget reduction decisions later this year to ensure that they are fully aware and appraised of the consequences.  We are conscious that while Nottingham City Council’s annual grant contribution may not seem large, this funding does enable many of the cultural organisations in our city to lever additional funds from Arts Council England and other trusts and societies.  Nottingham is a city with a rich, diverse and uniquely vibrant culture on offer. The city is home to many creative professionals that have a thriving community of both professional and amateur-led organisations and societies which make a strong contribution to Nottingham as a place where people want to visit, live, and study.  We know that in just the last financial year the work of the 14 national portfolio organisations funded and supported by Arts Council England in our city alone generated over 1.9 million visits from and across the UK into Nottingham, generating millions of pounds for the city’s economy. The City Council, over and above the annual grants, also directly manages and delivers Council services of its own. We employ hundreds of people in a number of services, including the Theatre Royal and Concert Hall, events delivery, museum and gallery service, and of course our libraries throughout the city. We are therefore very aware of the role and importance that cultural provision plays within the city’s wider economy, and the opportunities it offers to many young people who want to enter the arts sector.  This is quite a difficult sector in terms of the security of employment and so on and so forth, and so offering entry to those sectors is very important.

Unfortunately, the city is facing a budget crisis that will lead us to take difficult decisions down the line. But it is important to add that the state of Nottingham City Council’s finances and its £53 million budget gap is, in the majority, a product of a broken system of local government funding. We are in a situation whereby 1 in 5 councils in the UK are on the brink of financial meltdown. Nottingham City Council’s budget gap is mostly made out of pressures in rising costs for social care of adults and children and in rising costs of homelessness provision.  As you all know those are all areas that councils such as ours are legally mandated to provide, with an absence of adequate Government funding that can cover for current levels of inflation in those sectors.  So times are indeed hard, and there have been a number of difficult proposals brought forward by Council officers, including of course the proposal relating to the cultural sector. Ultimately what will help us to continue delivering for our communities, and continue delivery of those valued services that may be considered discretionary by this Government but are nonetheless indispensable for our communities is a change of Government. There will be opportunities for Nottingham residents to reverse this downwards spiral. This year there will be a General Election and also a Mayoral Election.  If Labour is given the mandate in a regional and national election the much needed work of reversing these 13 years of failed austere neo-liberal Conservative policymaking can start at last. Thank you.