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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the amount of funding awarded by the Arts Council to cities in the North of England compared to cities in other regions of England.

Arts Council England, which distributes public funding at arm’s length from His Majesty’s Government, is committed to supporting arts and culture across the whole country. Over the next three years, Arts Council England will distribute over £380 million in funding to 282 organisations across the North of England. This follows the request by HM Government to ensure that funding is spread more equitably across England. As a result, 78 organisations based in the North of England are new to the portfolio, including the Liverpool Lighthouse, Bradford Museums and Galleries, Company of Others dance ensemble in Newcastle, and Utopia Theatre in Sheffield.

Cities across the North of England will therefore receive increased investment. For instance, 11 organisations in Sheffield will receive a share of £11 million over three years. This increase in funding is also reflected across South Yorkshire, which will receive an additional £1.8 million per year, totalling £21.2 million over the three years 2023–26.

This shift meets the ambitious targets more fairly to distribute funding for culture to support levelling up objectives by increasing funding to areas outside London, and increasing Arts Council England funding to 109 places identified by the Arts Council and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as Levelling Up for Culture places (LUCPs). These Levelling Up Culture Places – which include cities in the North of England like Doncaster, Preston and Sunderland – will see investment almost double (a 95% increase). I would also like to draw the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement from the Secretary of State on 7 November 2023 which provides further information and which may be of interest.