Spending Review 2020

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Thursday 3rd December 2020 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, it is disappointing that the arts are not more acknowledged in the spending review, including their longer-term economic worth. The arts are part of an ecosystem, which includes the currently equally beleaguered hospitality sector, as the Incorporated Society of Musicians pointed out in its response. Can the Minister give more detail on the reference to local arts and culture in the levelling-up fund? Pre Covid, the crisis in arts and cultural funding has primarily been about the cuts to local council grants. According to a recent Fabian Society report, £860 million of arts funding has been lost in the past 10 years in this way—a reduction of 38% since 2009. The £20 million fund for England curiously brackets the arts alongside transport and other projects. Every area should be able to nurture its arts and enable access to them, not be pitted against each other in a bidding war. The cuts to local council funding urgently need to be reversed.

The arts have been grateful for the measures taken to support them during the pandemic, but too many freelancers continue to fall through gaps in support. I welcome the call from the Creative Industries Federation, among others, for a freelance commissioner, and a future work commission. I also support those who call for a creators’ council, which would do a very different job to the Creative Industries Council in presenting their needs directly to Government.

I have questions about the announcement that funding is to be put aside for a UK alternative to Erasmus+ in the DfE settlement if we do not continue to participate in that scheme. Would this be a reciprocal scheme with all the attendant benefits? Would it cover the range of opportunities that Erasmus currently provides—not just for university students, but for schools, teachers, apprentices, sport and more—and which already has the global reach that the UK scheme intends? I hope, that in making this announcement, the Government are not taking their foot off the gas in seeking to remain a programme member of Erasmus+ because it would be a huge loss if we lost that membership.