Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Canal and River Trust on ensuring the long-term resilience of canal infrastructure in (a) the Midlands and (b) Leicestershire.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that inland waterways provide many public benefits, including health and wellbeing effects, leisure and recreation uses, and industrial heritage attractions. They are also important for the natural environment by providing green corridors along which biodiversity can flourish, and contribute to the growth of local economies, via domestic tourism and facilitating active transport links. These were assessed as part of the Government’s review in 2021/22 of the current Canal and River Trust Grant. Officials also meet regularly with the Trust to discuss a range of issues.
As an independent charity the Trust is responsible for managing operational matters relating to individual canals, and the Government does not have a role in that. When the Trust was set up in 2012, the Government provided it with a 15-year grant (2012-2027) currently worth £740 million, which at £52.6 million a year represents 20-25% of its annual income. At the same time the Government also provided the Trust with a permanent endowment fund now worth over £1 billion that generates a further quarter of its income. The Government has reconfirmed its provision of a substantial new 10-year grant worth £401 million between 2027 and 2037, which reflects the importance it places on our waterways. It will bring the total amount of Government support for the Trust since 2012 to around £1.14 billion.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of ensuring a structurally-robust canal network on levels of active travel in communities.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that inland waterways provide many public benefits, including health and wellbeing effects, leisure and recreation uses, and industrial heritage attractions. They are also important for the natural environment by providing green corridors along which biodiversity can flourish, and contribute to the growth of local economies, via domestic tourism and facilitating active transport links. These were assessed as part of the Government’s review in 2021/22 of the current Canal and River Trust Grant. Officials also meet regularly with the Trust to discuss a range of issues.
As an independent charity the Trust is responsible for managing operational matters relating to individual canals, and the Government does not have a role in that. When the Trust was set up in 2012, the Government provided it with a 15-year grant (2012-2027) currently worth £740 million, which at £52.6 million a year represents 20-25% of its annual income. At the same time the Government also provided the Trust with a permanent endowment fund now worth over £1 billion that generates a further quarter of its income. The Government has reconfirmed its provision of a substantial new 10-year grant worth £401 million between 2027 and 2037, which reflects the importance it places on our waterways. It will bring the total amount of Government support for the Trust since 2012 to around £1.14 billion.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to support the long-term resilience of canal infrastructure in (a) the Midlands and (b) Leicestershire.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that inland waterways provide many public benefits, including health and wellbeing effects, leisure and recreation uses, and industrial heritage attractions. They are also important for the natural environment by providing green corridors along which biodiversity can flourish, and contribute to the growth of local economies, via domestic tourism and facilitating active transport links. These were assessed as part of the Government’s review in 2021/22 of the current Canal and River Trust Grant. Officials also meet regularly with the Trust to discuss a range of issues.
As an independent charity the Trust is responsible for managing operational matters relating to individual canals, and the Government does not have a role in that. When the Trust was set up in 2012, the Government provided it with a 15-year grant (2012-2027) currently worth £740 million, which at £52.6 million a year represents 20-25% of its annual income. At the same time the Government also provided the Trust with a permanent endowment fund now worth over £1 billion that generates a further quarter of its income. The Government has reconfirmed its provision of a substantial new 10-year grant worth £401 million between 2027 and 2037, which reflects the importance it places on our waterways. It will bring the total amount of Government support for the Trust since 2012 to around £1.14 billion.
Asked by: Baroness Bull (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the creative industries, arts, and heritage sectors will be represented in Government, and how the interests of these sectors will be protected.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We are in the early stages of the new Government and Ministers are considering the full range of policy options to support the creative industries, arts and heritage sectors to thrive and meet our manifesto commitments. These sectors play a central part in providing good jobs and wages in every part of our country and will be a key part of delivering on the government’s missions. They are a key driver of economic growth, they help shape our national identity and they bring enjoyment and fulfilment to many millions every week. They are a key sector and we are conscious that we cannot help them thrive without engaging directly with them at every stage of developing our economic and industrial strategy.
Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding is available for arts and culture in rural areas.
Answered by John Whittingdale
As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, HM Government is committed to ensuring that funding for arts and culture is more fairly distributed across the country. Arts Council England’s 2023–26 investment programme (the ‘National Portfolio’), worth over £444 million per year, has seen investment to cultural organisations in rural areas increase to £44.6 million, benefiting 110 organisations across the country.
In local authority areas identified as predominantly rural, there has been a 22% increase in investment in National Portfolio Organisations and Investment Principles Support Organisations. Urban areas with significant rural portions have seen an increase of 37%.
Cultural opportunities are also provided in rural areas by organisations based in neighbouring urban areas – for instance, through touring. Public library services in the Arts Council’s National Portfolio with a base in urban areas are also important to cultural opportunities in rural locations. The National Rural Touring Forum has also had its funding increased to help build capacity in this important part of the sector.
Arts Council England has also supported approximately 30 Cultural Compacts across England – including in rural and Levelling Up priority areas – and has provided these existing Compacts with further funding to build capacity and long-term cross-sector relationships. (Cultural Compacts are partnerships between the cultural and heritage sectors, Local Authorities, and wider local partners such as universities, health agencies, and the private sector, with the aim of enhancing creatives’ contribution to local development.)
Additionally, arts and cultural organisations in rural areas are able to access Arts Council England’s project grants, an open access programme for arts, libraries and museums projects. This supports thousands of individual artists and community and cultural organisations, with over £105 million of funding awarded in 2022/23.
Meanwhile, DCMS’s £86 million Museum Estate and Development Fund has supported several museums in rural areas, including The Food Museum in Stowmarket which presents the agricultural history of East Anglia, the industrial museums Papplewick Pumping Station and Coldharbour Mill, Shandy Hall, the rural home of the writer Laurence Sterne, and Ruddington Framework Knitters Museum.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure the adequacy of funding for cultural activities for (a) adults and (b) children in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by John Whittingdale
HM Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality arts and culture opportunities and activities, regardless of their background or where they live.
With the encouragement of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England has developed Priority Places and Levelling Up for Culture Places to address historic imbalances in investment. As part of this, priority places receive dedicated Arts Council staff resources to build capacity locally. The London Borough of Enfield is a Priority Place.
Since 2019/20, Arts Council England has invested almost £4 million in the Enfield North constituency. This funding includes £227,000 to ‘Building Enfield's Creative Capacity', a collaborative project delivering programmes of creative activity between July 2023 and March 2024 which celebrates Enfield’s industrial heritage and explores its future industrial identity through specialist art commissions, participatory workshops, open studios, exhibitions, public artworks, and community theatre co-produced with local people. In addition, Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme remains open for funding bids from anyone operating arts and cultural activities for the local community in Enfield North.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to safeguard the UK's industrial heritage.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK’s industrial heritage is a vital part of our nation's rich history and cultural life, and His Majesty’s Government has taken a number of steps to safeguard and promote our industrial heritage across the UK, including in the North East of England.
HM Government is committed to safeguarding our nation’s built heritage. The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 includes protection for iconic assets of industrial and engineering accomplishment, including the Grade I listed High Level Bridge, the Grade II* listed Tyne Bridge, and the Grade II* listed Swing Bridge, which is also a Scheduled Monument.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested more than £610 million in industrial, maritime and transport heritage projects across the UK since 1994, including £40 million in the North East.
In 2019, DCMS invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ project through the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. This involves a major capital transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham, which will help to celebrate the North East's unique relationship with heritage rail.
HM Government is also investing £95 million across 65 High Street Heritage Action Zones to revitalise high streets and connect people with their local heritage. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone is a brilliant example, restoring 26 miles of historic railway, and developing a major industrial heritage attraction, in the run-up to the bicentenary of the first public steam rail journey between Stockton and Darlington in 1825.
Repairs Grants for Heritage at Risk, managed by Historic England, have restored a number of industrial heritage sites across the North East, including £250,000 towards the restoration of a Grade II* railway goods shed in Darlington, thought to be the oldest surviving one in the UK.
Beyond the North East, DCMS has invested in the restoration of other industrial heritage assets. In Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, Historic England is working with developers to revitalise old textile mills, transforming them into new homes, commercial spaces, and cultural hubs. Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have helped to reopen Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – the first iron-framed building in the world – as a new workspace and community asset, with its conservation providing work placements, training and hands-on experience in heritage preservation and construction skills.
DCMS is working more broadly to promote the UK’s industrial heritage. Our sponsored museums and arm’s-length bodies are playing a key role in engaging young people with our industrial cultural heritage, and encouraging them into STEM pathways. This includes the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inspiring future engineers with its focus on how Britain’s industrial heritage changed the world. This is supported by the work of the four other Science Museum sites and the Natural History Museum.
Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme supports primary and secondary schools to engage children with their local industrial heritage and to consider possible future career paths.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, is developing the Cultural Education Plan, which will aim to support career progression pathways, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcomes for children and young people within the cultural and creative sectors. This includes improving engagement in our heritage sectors and industrial heritage.
Industrial heritage is also fundamental for tourism and our local visitor economy, especially in the North East. The Government is currently developing the Destination Development Partnership, which includes working with partners across the North East to improve the region's visitor economy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with Ministers in the Department for Education of the role of industrial cultural heritage in attracting young people into STEM subjects.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK’s industrial heritage is a vital part of our nation's rich history and cultural life, and His Majesty’s Government has taken a number of steps to safeguard and promote our industrial heritage across the UK, including in the North East of England.
HM Government is committed to safeguarding our nation’s built heritage. The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 includes protection for iconic assets of industrial and engineering accomplishment, including the Grade I listed High Level Bridge, the Grade II* listed Tyne Bridge, and the Grade II* listed Swing Bridge, which is also a Scheduled Monument.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested more than £610 million in industrial, maritime and transport heritage projects across the UK since 1994, including £40 million in the North East.
In 2019, DCMS invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ project through the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. This involves a major capital transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham, which will help to celebrate the North East's unique relationship with heritage rail.
HM Government is also investing £95 million across 65 High Street Heritage Action Zones to revitalise high streets and connect people with their local heritage. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone is a brilliant example, restoring 26 miles of historic railway, and developing a major industrial heritage attraction, in the run-up to the bicentenary of the first public steam rail journey between Stockton and Darlington in 1825.
Repairs Grants for Heritage at Risk, managed by Historic England, have restored a number of industrial heritage sites across the North East, including £250,000 towards the restoration of a Grade II* railway goods shed in Darlington, thought to be the oldest surviving one in the UK.
Beyond the North East, DCMS has invested in the restoration of other industrial heritage assets. In Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, Historic England is working with developers to revitalise old textile mills, transforming them into new homes, commercial spaces, and cultural hubs. Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have helped to reopen Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – the first iron-framed building in the world – as a new workspace and community asset, with its conservation providing work placements, training and hands-on experience in heritage preservation and construction skills.
DCMS is working more broadly to promote the UK’s industrial heritage. Our sponsored museums and arm’s-length bodies are playing a key role in engaging young people with our industrial cultural heritage, and encouraging them into STEM pathways. This includes the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inspiring future engineers with its focus on how Britain’s industrial heritage changed the world. This is supported by the work of the four other Science Museum sites and the Natural History Museum.
Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme supports primary and secondary schools to engage children with their local industrial heritage and to consider possible future career paths.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, is developing the Cultural Education Plan, which will aim to support career progression pathways, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcomes for children and young people within the cultural and creative sectors. This includes improving engagement in our heritage sectors and industrial heritage.
Industrial heritage is also fundamental for tourism and our local visitor economy, especially in the North East. The Government is currently developing the Destination Development Partnership, which includes working with partners across the North East to improve the region's visitor economy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what (a) programmes and (b) bodies her Department provides funding to for the promotion of the UK's industrial heritage.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK’s industrial heritage is a vital part of our nation's rich history and cultural life, and His Majesty’s Government has taken a number of steps to safeguard and promote our industrial heritage across the UK, including in the North East of England.
HM Government is committed to safeguarding our nation’s built heritage. The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 includes protection for iconic assets of industrial and engineering accomplishment, including the Grade I listed High Level Bridge, the Grade II* listed Tyne Bridge, and the Grade II* listed Swing Bridge, which is also a Scheduled Monument.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested more than £610 million in industrial, maritime and transport heritage projects across the UK since 1994, including £40 million in the North East.
In 2019, DCMS invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ project through the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. This involves a major capital transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham, which will help to celebrate the North East's unique relationship with heritage rail.
HM Government is also investing £95 million across 65 High Street Heritage Action Zones to revitalise high streets and connect people with their local heritage. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone is a brilliant example, restoring 26 miles of historic railway, and developing a major industrial heritage attraction, in the run-up to the bicentenary of the first public steam rail journey between Stockton and Darlington in 1825.
Repairs Grants for Heritage at Risk, managed by Historic England, have restored a number of industrial heritage sites across the North East, including £250,000 towards the restoration of a Grade II* railway goods shed in Darlington, thought to be the oldest surviving one in the UK.
Beyond the North East, DCMS has invested in the restoration of other industrial heritage assets. In Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, Historic England is working with developers to revitalise old textile mills, transforming them into new homes, commercial spaces, and cultural hubs. Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have helped to reopen Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – the first iron-framed building in the world – as a new workspace and community asset, with its conservation providing work placements, training and hands-on experience in heritage preservation and construction skills.
DCMS is working more broadly to promote the UK’s industrial heritage. Our sponsored museums and arm’s-length bodies are playing a key role in engaging young people with our industrial cultural heritage, and encouraging them into STEM pathways. This includes the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inspiring future engineers with its focus on how Britain’s industrial heritage changed the world. This is supported by the work of the four other Science Museum sites and the Natural History Museum.
Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme supports primary and secondary schools to engage children with their local industrial heritage and to consider possible future career paths.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, is developing the Cultural Education Plan, which will aim to support career progression pathways, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcomes for children and young people within the cultural and creative sectors. This includes improving engagement in our heritage sectors and industrial heritage.
Industrial heritage is also fundamental for tourism and our local visitor economy, especially in the North East. The Government is currently developing the Destination Development Partnership, which includes working with partners across the North East to improve the region's visitor economy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken to promote the UK's industrial heritage (a) in the North East and (b) across the UK.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The UK’s industrial heritage is a vital part of our nation's rich history and cultural life, and His Majesty’s Government has taken a number of steps to safeguard and promote our industrial heritage across the UK, including in the North East of England.
HM Government is committed to safeguarding our nation’s built heritage. The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 includes protection for iconic assets of industrial and engineering accomplishment, including the Grade I listed High Level Bridge, the Grade II* listed Tyne Bridge, and the Grade II* listed Swing Bridge, which is also a Scheduled Monument.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested more than £610 million in industrial, maritime and transport heritage projects across the UK since 1994, including £40 million in the North East.
In 2019, DCMS invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ project through the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. This involves a major capital transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham, which will help to celebrate the North East's unique relationship with heritage rail.
HM Government is also investing £95 million across 65 High Street Heritage Action Zones to revitalise high streets and connect people with their local heritage. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone is a brilliant example, restoring 26 miles of historic railway, and developing a major industrial heritage attraction, in the run-up to the bicentenary of the first public steam rail journey between Stockton and Darlington in 1825.
Repairs Grants for Heritage at Risk, managed by Historic England, have restored a number of industrial heritage sites across the North East, including £250,000 towards the restoration of a Grade II* railway goods shed in Darlington, thought to be the oldest surviving one in the UK.
Beyond the North East, DCMS has invested in the restoration of other industrial heritage assets. In Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, Historic England is working with developers to revitalise old textile mills, transforming them into new homes, commercial spaces, and cultural hubs. Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have helped to reopen Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – the first iron-framed building in the world – as a new workspace and community asset, with its conservation providing work placements, training and hands-on experience in heritage preservation and construction skills.
DCMS is working more broadly to promote the UK’s industrial heritage. Our sponsored museums and arm’s-length bodies are playing a key role in engaging young people with our industrial cultural heritage, and encouraging them into STEM pathways. This includes the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inspiring future engineers with its focus on how Britain’s industrial heritage changed the world. This is supported by the work of the four other Science Museum sites and the Natural History Museum.
Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme supports primary and secondary schools to engage children with their local industrial heritage and to consider possible future career paths.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, is developing the Cultural Education Plan, which will aim to support career progression pathways, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcomes for children and young people within the cultural and creative sectors. This includes improving engagement in our heritage sectors and industrial heritage.
Industrial heritage is also fundamental for tourism and our local visitor economy, especially in the North East. The Government is currently developing the Destination Development Partnership, which includes working with partners across the North East to improve the region's visitor economy.