Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made on delivering support through the Culture Recovery Fund to the culture and heritage sector in Coventry .

Last year the government announced the unprecedented £1.57 billion support package for the culture sector, of which over £1 billion has now been allocated to over 3,800 arts and culture organisations across the country. We are proud to say that HMT have now announced in this week’s budget a further £300 million for the Culture Recovery Fund to continue to support key local and natural cultural organisations as audiences begin to return. This will continue to ensure a vibrant future for the culture sector as the nation recovers from the pandemic.

The Culture Recovery Fund is already supporting the arts and culture sector to survive the pandemic and continue operating. The further support announced at this week’s budget will allow museums, theatres and galleries to move towards reopening with optimism and support jobs up and down the country. Details on this additional funding will be published by DCMS in due course.

The culture and heritage sector in Coventry has so far been awarded over £6m across 17 organisations, including organisations such as the Belgrade Theatre Trust and the Kasbah Nightclub. They join a total of 289 organisations receiving funds in the wider West Midlands region.