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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of local bodies spending money on major sporting and cultural events as a means of boosting growth.

Investment from local bodies is a matter for the bodies in question, however the support of local bodies is important for the successful staging of major sporting and cultural events, which we know can bring significant benefits. Local bodies have invested in both the 2014 Tour De France Grand Départ, which generated £102m of benefit to Yorkshire and the UK City of Culture 2017 which is expected to deliver a £60m boost to Hull's economy. Over one million people visited Derry-Londonderry during their UK City of Culture year. Additionally DCMS commissioned ECORYS to carry out an independent literature review on the local economic impacts from cultural sector investments which will be published in due course.