Economy: Culture and the Arts

Lord Gardiner of Kimble Excerpts

Thursday 13th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend Lady Wheatcroft on securing this debate. On the fundamentals, I believe that we are all united. Be it dance, opera, theatre, museums, paintings, design, gardens, historic buildings, sculpture, photography, heritage, film, literature or television production, culture and the arts bring our country alive, stimulate creativity, inspire us, develop a strong sense of community, challenge and entertain us. They are essential to the fabric of our society. Alongside all these important features lies their enormous contribution to the economy.

The UK’s culture reaches out far beyond these shores. It attracts millions of tourists to our country every year, forging international relations and building trade links and greater collaboration with the rest of the world. Culture is GREAT is one of the pillars of the Government’s successful GREAT campaign aimed at promoting the UK internationally. The Government’s priority is growth. Heritage, the arts, the creative industries and tourism are essential to that success. My noble friend Lady Bonham-Carter spoke powerfully about that. The noble Lord, Lord Smith of Finsbury, reminded us, with all his experience and commitment how important the creative industries are. The UK’s cultural sector—both private and publicly funded—has a significant role to play in local and regional economic regeneration. In 2011, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park directly contributed to the employment of 108 full-time jobs and was worth at least £4.68 million to the local economy. We heard from my noble friend Lady Seccombe about Shakespeare and the beneficial impact of Stratford and beyond. Margate, St Ives, Gateshead, to name but a few, all have cultural projects making a huge difference.

This Government, in recognising the value of the arts and culture, increased the share of funding from the National Lottery to the arts so that the Arts Council England is now projected to receive £262 million of lottery funding in 2015 compared with £151 million in 2010-11. Many noble Lords, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, and my noble friends Lord Grade of Yarmouth and Lord Maclennan of Rogart mentioned this. Arts and culture in the UK are supported by mixed sources of funding. Nearly £3 billion of public and lottery funding will go to the arts over the lifetime of this Parliament. In the current climate, I believe that that represents a positive settlement for the sector. Public funding of the arts remains a cornerstone and from this many benefits flow. It encourages innovation and that experimentalism drives creativity. Some go on to achieve huge commercial success. My noble friend Lord Grade of Yarmouth confirmed that. “War Horse”, which was mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, inspired by a puppetry show at the Battersea Arts Centre, then produced by the National Theatre, went on to achieve numerous awards and was an Oscar-nominated film.

The latest report published by Arts Council England earlier this week clearly upholds this belief that public subsidy provides the space for innovation, talent development and risk. It shows that there is a significant amount of movement between publicly funded theatre and purely commercial theatre. Public investment today can lead to the blockbusters of tomorrow and the value this brings to our economy. London theatres grossed more than £0.5 billion in sales, selling 14 million tickets last year. Furthermore, 10.6 million people living outside London visit a theatre at least once a year. The UK’s creative industries contribute more than £36 billion or 2.9% to the UK economy; they export £8.9 billion and employ more than 1.5 million people, which is around 5% of the UK workforce.

The UK film industry goes from strength to strength with its Harry Potter films, and films such as “Skyfall”, “The King’s Speech” and “Les Miserables”. British Film Institute research shows that the industry contributes £4.6 billion to the economy, as the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, highlighted There is a great history of public service broadcasting in this country, which means that the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 can now invest more than £3 billion a year in TV programming across their channels. That supports the creative industries through direct investment and provides a degree of stability in the market. They commission innovative and culturally diverse programming, and bring the arts and our creative industries to a much wider audience. Furthermore, recently published research commissioned by Arts Council England shows that the UK arts and culture sector had a turnover of £12.4 billion and contributed £5.9 billion to the UK economy in 2011. Research suggests that for every £1 generated by the sector, an additional £1.43 is generated in the wider UK economy through suppliers to the sector and additional spending by those who work in the sector.

Perhaps I may give the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, some reassurance. The Government recognise that public funding for the arts offers stability and unlocks further funding. Public funding in partnership with other funding streams is the most advantageous for the long-term sustainability of the arts in this country. This includes earned income from commercial activity, private giving and philanthropy, and access to the lottery. This mixed model of funding avoids reliance on any one form of income, allows for risk and builds resilience. I was interested in what my noble friend Lord Eccles said about independence and funding, and his experience of Kew and the Bowes Museum.

In 2014-15, Arts Council England will invest £345 million into the arts. As its chairman, Sir Peter Bazalgette, has said, this funding acts as venture capital, giving confidence to others to invest in the creativity and innovations of our cultural organisations. The creative employment programme, with funding from Arts Council England until March 2015, will provide up to 6,500 apprenticeship placements, helping young unemployed people enter the cultural workforce. The programme aims to approve the first 700 apprenticeships and 500 paid internships by 31 October this year. This is something that my noble friends Lord Grade of Yarmouth and Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville were particularly interested in.

The UK is home to a wide and varied cultural offer that distinguishes us from the rest of the world, be it historic ships like the “Mary Rose” and “HMS Victory” in Portsmouth, David Bowie’s clothes to world-renowned music festivals that take place up and down the country every summer. I was mindful of the speech by my noble friend Lady Sharp of Guildford on science heritage, particularly, as it is so current, about the development which has secured the future of the “Mary Rose”. The noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, mentioned science and the arts and the importance of them riding together.

Four in 10 leisure visitors to the UK cite heritage and culture as the primary motivation for their visit. In 2011, more than 10 million inbound visitors to the UK engaged with some form of arts and culture. Research commissioned by Arts Council England estimates that £856 million per annum of visitor spend can be directly attributed to arts and culture. It is therefore no surprise that with more than 5.5 million visitors last year, the British Museum is the UK’s top visitor attraction and is ranked in the top five museums in the world. I acknowledge the great work which my noble friend Lady Wheatcroft and the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, have rightly highlighted. This work is, of course, replicated among the many museums across the land.

The Heritage Lottery Fund estimates that heritage tourism's direct annual impact on the economy is £4.3 billion. Including those that supply the sector and additional spending by those who work in the sector, heritage tourism contributes £11.9 billion annually to the economy. All this demonstrates the very clear benefits the cultural sector brings to our economy through tourism and the UK’s cultural status. This global status was amplified following the Olympic and Paralympic Games of last year. Britain’s overall nation brand improved, with Britain moving up one place to be ranked fourth out of 50 major countries around the world.

Last year’s Cultural Olympiad that accompanied the Games was a vast celebration of the UK as a centre for cultural innovation, creativity and a true showcase of Britain to the world. With more than 43 million visitors, participants, audience members and volunteers, the Cultural Olympiad engaged communities across the UK and inspired people to get involved in culture, including many who attended or participated in events for the first time. There was indeed something for everyone.

The Government are working to build on those great successes and it is essential that we create a lasting legacy from them. To harness all this success, we must look at ways of increasing financial resilience, by building skills in areas such as fundraising and ensuring our cultural sector continues to realise its artistic and economic value. The Government have demonstrated their commitment to the creative industries by working to introduce tax reliefs to support film, TV, animation and videogames, as the noble Viscount, Lord Colville of Culross, mentioned. In this year’s Budget, the Government also announced a package of measures to support growth and jobs in these industries through investing in the development of skills and technology. Cultural and the creative industries, including museums, libraries, publishing, designer fashion, technology and architecture, have been represented on many of the Prime Minister’s trade missions around the world. That has promoted Britain to global partners. I hope this reassures the noble Viscount, but I will look into the point that he made.

My noble friend Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville asked about philanthropy. The Government have introduced initiatives to boost philanthropy, including a reduced rate of inheritance tax for legacy giving and the recently launched cultural gifts scheme. This saw its first major gift, one of the best collections of Beatles lyrics and manuscripts, being made to the British Library only last month. We have simplified gift aid, while the Catalyst scheme has also been developed, under which £110 million has already been earmarked for arts and heritage organisations, which will unlock at least as much again from private donors. I hope it will also improve the fund-raising skills which my noble friend Lord Brooke mentioned. We should also applaud the profound generosity of those donors who have contributed almost £700 million to the cultural sector each year.

Another area in which the Government support world-class culture is through the Government Indemnity Scheme. This provides an alternative to the considerable cost of commercial insurance for museums, galleries, archives and libraries. The wonderful “Houghton Revisited” exhibition of paintings that are on loan to Houghton Hall from the Hermitage in St Petersburg is a recent example, and what an uplift that is to the economy of rural Norfolk as well. So from Sir Robert Walpole’s magnificent collection of old masters to digital innovation, there is a place for all kinds of creativity and endeavour.

This year, Derry/Londonderry is the UK’s City of Culture; the next City of Culture for 2017 is due to be selected later this year. Enlightened cities recognise the value which culture has as a driver for tourism in showcasing the best their city can offer. I am particularly mindful of the successes in Liverpool. I was glad to hear my noble friend Lord Maclennan raising the lord mayor of London’s initiative, which should surely be applauded. Beyond the City of Culture, councils across the country are in partnership with cultural groups to deliver music education hubs—a key component of the national plan for music education, which is seeing an investment of more than £200 million in music education. I listened carefully to what the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, said and I would like to consider very much what he said about some particular examples.

In response to the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, the Government have been working closely with arts sector representatives and the Arts Council as part of the review of the national curriculum. We are due to publish the cultural education plan shortly; I know that my noble friend Lady Bonham-Carter referred to that.

While this Government do not seek to dictate to local authorities how they spend their money, DCMS Ministers are in discussion with the Local Government Association about how local authorities are approaching the pressures of existing budgets. I assure the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, that Ministers and officials engage regularly with other government departments on cross-departmental policy.

Noble Lords have mentioned the forthcoming spending round and I want to reassure them, particularly the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, that I know from my discussions with Ministers that they are being absolutely robust about setting out the vital role that the cultural sector plays and about the manner in which it can contribute to the return to growth. Conversations are still ongoing.

We have had an exceptional debate. There is so much more to say. I have listened very carefully to what has been said and I thank my noble friend Lady Wheatcroft and all noble Lords for giving us this great opportunity to explore the considerable importance of culture and the arts.

[Lord Puttnam]

Before the Minister sits down—

[Baroness Northover]

There is not time, I am afraid. The Minister must finish and we have to conclude within a minute and a half.

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

I apologise to noble Lords. The resounding view from us all is that the cultural sector and all who work within it contribute to the UK economy as well as enriching national life. The arts and culture are part of the route to national recovery. We must grasp every opportunity to allow culture and the arts to flourish and the UK economy to prosper.