Earl of Clancarty
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(3 years, 8 months ago)
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The Earl of Clancarty (CB)
My Lords, I too congratulate noble Lords on their maiden speeches.
The arts and creative industries are worth over £116 billion a year and second only to financial services in their value to the UK’s economy, in the traditional sense. However, the value of these industries can also be understood in relation to other economies: creative capital, the cultural landscape, the social economy, the economy of health and well-being, and that of soft power, which is rarely measured but highly valued by Governments. However, there is now a double threat to these industries from Covid and Brexit, and, in the long run, Brexit is the greater threat.
Most immediately, the sector is grateful for the extra money and for extensions to the JRS and SEISS, but there are still many self-employed people who continue to fall through gaps in support. Will the Government ensure, as Wales has done, that money from the Culture Recovery Fund will go to freelance artists? Will they introduce their own insurance, as they have done for film and TV, to help the return of performance? Some festivals have decided that they cannot risk going ahead, but UK Music has estimated that a £650 million fund would allow £2 billion-worth of events. Will the Government introduce a new tax relief—similar to the successful theatre tax relief, as the ISM proposes—for live music, touring and new work, beyond the relief which already exists in part for orchestras?
Before Covid, the biggest crisis in arts and cultural funding was that for local and regional museums, libraries and venues, including theatres, whose essential support from local authorities has been cut to the bone over many years. Covid has exacerbated that. That is not due to poor management, as Community Secretary Robert Jenrick has said; it is a step-by-step withdrawal of central government support from local authorities, support that should be applied equally and fairly across the country.