By stewartb

There will be a Scottish Government debate in Holyrood on January 14 on ‘Valuing Culture: Scotland’s Support to the Culture Sector’. Will it generate heat or light?

It will be worth observing how British Labour Party politicians in Scotland approach this debate. Will they acknowledge longstanding stresses and strains on Scottish Government finances due to Westminster austerity and inflation? Or will we hear the usual carping? And how will BBC Scotland and the rest of the mainstream media ‘serving’ Scotland report: devoid of context and perspective as usual? As we assess the various contributions, it will be worth bearing in mind this new report from the Senedd.

Source: Welsh Parliament, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee (January 2025) A decade of cuts: Impact of funding reductions for culture and sport’ (https://senedd.wales/media/ekumt3dy/cr-ld16899-e.pdf  )

There are two matters of interest and relevance arising from the Senedd’s report. The first is the record of support from the longstanding Labour government in Cardiff. The second is the justification for this level of support as evidenced by a Welsh government minister.

Recent funding settlements

From the committee chair’s foreword, culture and sport “were hit particularly harshly by the cuts in the 2024-25 Welsh Government budget, which was exacerbated by the effects felt by inflation, rising costs and reduced participation post-COVID.” Adding: “In Wales, funding of culture and sport is lower than in most European nations, which regrettably highlights the lack of strategy, vision and direction which has been given to these vital policy areas from the Welsh Government.”

From Para 1 of the committee report: ‘The 2024-25 Welsh Government budget saw reductions in funding for all areas of culture and sport.’ (my emphasis)

Para 10: ‘During our engagement activities, organisations told us that the reduction in

funding has, in real terms, been systematic over the last seven to ten years.’

Para 11: ‘Between 2014-15 and 2024-25:

• Revenue and capital grant-in-aid funding for the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (the Commission) has declined by 34 per cent in real terms.
• Revenue and capital grant-in-aid funding for Sport Wales decreased by nine per cent in real terms.
• The Books Council of Wales’ s total income has reduced by 20 per cent in real terms.
• Revenue and capital grant-in-aid for the National Library of Wales (the Library) reduced in real terms by about three per cent.’
• ‘Revenue and capital grant-in-aid for Amgueddfa Cymru (Museum Wales) reduced by about one per cent in real terms.’ In Para 20 it is reported that for Amgueddfa Cymru: ’… revenue funding has reduced in real terms over a decade by nine per cent’.

Para 12: ‘Provision of culture, sport and recreation services is discretionary for local authorities. Between 2013-14 and 2023-24, local authority revenue funding of libraries, culture, heritage, sport and recreation reduced by 28 per cent in real terms.’

The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) is quoted: “A reduction in the investment by Councils due to their reduced Revenue Support Grant (RSG) block grant and unprecedented pressures on health and social care budgets are compounding the problem for non-statutory services such as Leisure and Culture.”

Para 17: ‘Wales ranks third from bottom of the (25 European) countries looked at in terms of recreational and sporting services funding per person and has a similar amount of funding as Poland and Lithuania. Wales ranks below the UK in terms of funding: Wales has £59.75 of funding per person for recreational and sporting services compared with the UK’s £66.18 of funding per person.’

Para 18: ‘Wales ranks second from bottom in terms of cultural services spending per person, ranking below all selected (25 European) countries other than Greece. Wales has £69.68 spending per person for cultural services compared with the UK’s £91.12 spending per person.’

Arts Council Wales

From Para 24, for Arts Council Wales (ACW): ‘.. its revenue funding reduced in real terms over a decade (from 2014-15) by about 29 per cent. Capital funding over the same period remained the same at £400,000.’

ACW has recently removed all funding from National Theatre Wales which is now no more. The committee reports that following ACW’s 2023 Investment Review, it reduced funding for the Welsh National Opera by 12 per cent, as well as ceasing to fund Mid Wales Opera.

In its written evidence, ACW states:

‘Arts Council – Lottery income has had to be used in part to supplement the cuts in grant in aid where it’s appropriate to do so and we are able to, under the separate Directions. This has put additional pressure on our lottery programmes and an overall reduction in the number of applications we are now able to fund, with some grant rounds achieving a success rate as low as 35% due to budget constraints.’

‘In our recent Investment Review we have only been able to award 13 of the 81 successful applicants in full. We have had to ask 63 of our multi year funding organisations to scale back and remodel their proposals and planned activity .…’’

‘We have effectively received a reduction in our Welsh Government funding of 40% when compared to 2010 funding levels.’

Evidence from government

The Welsh Government Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership gave evidence to the committee (November 13, 2024 – https://record.senedd.wales/Committee/14159) .Here are extracts from the transcript:

Para 14: ‘.. so if we look at 2010 onwards, we saw a period of austerity from the Westminster Government, and we saw reductions in budgets towards the Welsh Government as well.

‘If we look at the most recent settlement, the 2024-25 settlement, when that was published, we were in a position where we had £700 million less than we expected, and then the budget for 2024-25 is £3 billion lower than if it would have grown with gross domestic product.

‘So, if you put it into the context of where we are, we’ve had to make serious decisions and difficult decisions. No Minister within any Government of any shape or any colour within the Welsh Government would want to have made the decisions that they have had to make.’

Adding ‘So, there’s the context that these have been difficult decisions, and the reasons behind that as to why, but, nonetheless, we have still gone a way to help mitigate some of the impacts that we’re all seeing, not just in this sector, but across the Government as well.

Para 17: ‘I think the state of the sector, and you referenced the 14 years—. Well, I agree with you, we’ve had 14 years of policies from a Westminster Government. That impact of austerity is very real, and the situation that is in front of the arts, culture and sports sector faces up to the reality of those policies. And that was a choice by the Conservative Government at the time …’

Para 21 on the state of funding for sport: ‘You have to have the context of where the Welsh Government’s budget comes from as well, don’t you? The Welsh Government’s budget has been impacted, as I’ve already outlined today and in my written evidence, by those policies. So, it’s the impact overall that trickles its way down to the sports—.’

Local government funding

A committee member asked the Minister: ‘do you have a view on the fact that local authorities’ spending on libraries, culture, heritage, sport, recreation has reduced by 28 per cent over the last decade? Is that something that you regret seeing?’

The Minister’s response in Para 39: ‘Again, in the context of where we have found ourselves and the budgets and what I’ve outlined already today, local authorities have found themselves, perhaps, in a worse position because of the impacts of austerity and the inflationary pressures that they’ve faced.’

‘I think if we were in a place where public services were funded in the way that we all, I think, in this room would want them to be and, I know, the Welsh Government would want them to be—but, again, that’s a trickle-down approach, isn’t it, if we don’t get the settlement from the UK Government like we haven’t had in those years before, but we’ve had a more hopeful approach from this new Government in Westminster—if we are able to support local authorities in the way in which they deserve to be funded, then I’m sure that figure that you quoted wouldn’t be the figure. They would go on supporting those things as well.’

‘Local authority officials and councillors are often the ones who face the brunt of the difficult decisions that have come down all the way to them. So, it’s a difficult figure but it’s the reality of where they find themselves.’ 

So it’s decisions that have ‘come down all the way to them’, by way of the strictly responsible Labour Welsh Government but it’s Westminster to blame for ‘the reality of where they (local authorities) find themselves’? A truth that leading British Labour Party politicians – sensitised to any negative implications for their Unionism – could never accept!

End note

The evidence from Labour’s Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership in Wales (Jack Sargeant) is peppered with the word ‘context’. In each case, ’context’ is the constraining impact of Westminster policies on Welsh government finances and how their negative effects then ‘trickle down’ to diverse areas of Welsh government activity.

We’ve become accustomed to British Labour Party politicians in Wales pointing to the harmful impact of Westminster policies on the state of NHS Wales. Here we see similar apportioning of responsibility to explain reduced levels of financial support in real terms from the Welsh government for culture, sport and local government.  Can you see British Labour Party leaders nodding in agreement with this same proposition if put in Holyrood?