Arts: Funding

Lord Scott of Foscote Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Scott of Foscote]

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, for initiating this debate and congratulate both the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, and the noble Lord, Lord Wasserman, on their notable maiden speeches, which have contributed significantly to the debate.

I declare an interest, which is not a personal interest, in that my wife is the chair of the Arts & Heritage Alliance Milton Keynes and a member of various constituent organisations in that alliance. Due to her offices, I was acquainted with the report produced by an organisation called the Culture Forum, which was formed under the initiative of the National Campaign for the Arts some time last year so that a collective voice for the arts and heritage sectors could respond to the Government’s call for a national debate on the economy and, among other things, speak for the public funding of those two sectors.

The Culture Forum’s report from last December—I believe that a copy was sent to Ministers, but in any event I have provided a copy to the Minister who will respond to this debate—contains practically all that needs to be said on this important question of the value of funding for the arts and the manner in which the possibility of cuts for that funding should be approached. The forum makes a powerful case for the importance of public funding of the arts. It makes clear the influence of initial public funding for a particular cultural activity or cultural organisation that acts as a magnet to attract private funding for the event or organisation. Together, those funding streams can create economic activity that produces a value of many times the amount of the initial public funding. That multiplier effect of public funding is highly important and should be borne in mind by the Government when considering what, if any, cuts to make to the public funded arts sector.

I shall give an example of that close to my personal home. When Milton Keynes staged an international festival for the arts for the first time last year—Milton Keynes is something of a new city anyway—the festival got off the ground with public funding of something like £600,000 from Milton Keynes Council and other public bodies. That public funding enabled the sponsors to attract private funding of something like £1.8 million. As a whole, that funding led to a very successful festival that lasted nine days, attracted some 90,000 people and generated an estimated £45 million-worth of economic activity in the Milton Keynes area. Similar evidence can be given from other examples—I think of Liverpool’s experience when it was the culture capital of Europe in 2008.

Another feature that the Culture Forum report makes clear is the value of the arts and heritage sectors in promoting the health and well-being of society generally. We hear a good deal of talk these days about the so-called “big society”, but I doubt whether there can be a big society without a healthy cultural sector. Correspondingly, an impoverished cultural sector in the community is likely to be a sure sign of a community impoverished in many other respects. There may be an unanswerable case—there probably is—for cuts to be made in public spending of various sorts, but of course the Government and other public authorities have to decide where the cuts will fall. In deciding what cuts, if any, should be imposed on the arts and heritage sectors, the value of those sectors must, I suggest, be borne clearly in mind.

The first paragraph of the Culture Forum report states:

“Arts and Heritage is one of this country’s greatest success stories. It goes to the heart of what it is to be human. It is a force for good in health, education and strong communities. It is vital for tourism, foreign earnings and urban and rural regeneration. In this field we are world class”.

If cuts there must be, let the Government be careful not to achieve through those cuts the result—for which they would not easily be forgiven—of drowning the baby or throwing it out with the bathwater.