Nationally Significant Cultural Institutions: Capital Maintenance Costs

Debate between Lord Mendoza and Baroness Dacres of Lewisham

Monday 2nd November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Dacres of Lewisham (Lab)]

I thank the noble Earl, because he raises an interesting point. I remind the House that this Government were resolute that such recovery funds were loans and should be cleared and repaid. Organisations facing severe financial difficulties can approach the Arts Council to explore adjusting repayment schedules, but this needs to be done under strict guidance and be a measure of last resort.

[Lord Mendoza (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as chairman of Historic England. In 2024, DCMS put out the Purcell report, looking at the deficit of maintenance in our cultural infrastructure. It came up with a figure of some £7 billion. One of our biggest problems is that we need the skilled labour to do this work. At Historic England, we estimate that about 100,000 jobs could be created for young people. We need desperately to get these skills in there, because there are companies out there that cannot take on the jobs even if we could pay for them, and only 14% of companies in the heritage construction sector employ people under the age of 25. Does the Minister agree that it would be wonderful if we could incentivise the construction sector to take on apprentices, to take on young people to teach them the skills that we need in this country to produce economic growth in this incredibly important sector?