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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to rebalance arts and culture funding between London and the South East and the rest of the country.

The Government wants everyone to have the opportunity to experience arts and culture wherever they live. By 2015/16, Arts Council will have shifted the balance of funding to the number of national organisations they support so that over half will be located outside of London. This is a move in the right direction but as the Arts Council acknowledged at the announcement of their portfolio there is still more to do and further to go. It will take time for this to happen and the Government will continue to discuss this with the Arts Council and monitor this.

The Government has also supported the growth of arts and culture outside of London and the South East by a number of measures. These include the Theatre Tax Relief which encourages greater touring by theatre companies so that the whole country can share and see different productions from different regions. The Government announced at the Autumn Statement 2014 that £1m will be provided to support a Great Exhibition in the North celebrating the great art, culture and design of the North, £78m of capital funding will be provided to create a new theatre and exhibition space in Manchester and £3m will be provided to support First World War art projects primarily in Northern cities. On Thursday, my right hon. friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Government will provide £1.5 million towards the refurbishment of the Ferens Gallery in Hull to help support Hull’s aspiration to host the Turner prize as part of the UK City of Culture programme in 2017 and in December, he announced that the Museum of Science and Industry will receive a £3m grant for the building of a new temporary exhibition gallery.