Spending Review 2025

Baroness Keeley Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Keeley (Lab)]

My Lords, I would like to ask about continued funding by DfE for the music and dance scheme bursaries for talented young musicians and for the outreach work of the national centres for advanced training in dance. It is right that the Government fund schemes such as these, which ensure that dance training is not just for elites and that children from any background can access a world-leading vocational music or dance education. Can my noble friend the Minister convey to the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Education the need to protect and, when possible, to grow the funding of our leading pathway into music and dance careers for young people from deprived backgrounds?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I will do exactly as my noble friend asks and pass that on. The important announcements yesterday that she mentions are incredibly welcome. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the Chancellor also announced the dormant assets initiative to get more creative industries into more schools, so that the huge advantages and benefits of that kind of creative industry are available no longer only to privileged children but to far more children in state schools.

Tax Reliefs: Theatre, Orchestra and Museums and Galleries Exhibition

Baroness Keeley Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

Orchestra concerts with a vocal element are not excluded from the orchestra tax relief. Concerts with a vocal element, such as a choir, may be eligible if the instrumentalists are the primary focus of the concert. The current rules ensure that the orchestra tax relief meets its objective of supporting and incentivising orchestra concerts specifically.

[Baroness Keeley (Lab)]

My Lords, on the benefits of the orchestra tax relief, the permanent 45% rate has been transformative. It enables UK orchestras to build new audiences, support new productions, generate employment and develop future talent. The cost of the orchestra tax relief was only 1.5% of the total creative tax reliefs in 2022-23. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that keeping this tax relief is consistent with the Labour Government’s mission for economic growth?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for her question. The creative industries are absolutely a major driver of economic growth in this country. She will be aware that I am unable to comment on speculation about specific taxes. In the coming Budget, we must rebuild our public finances to ensure economic stability, including by addressing the £22 billion black hole inherited from the previous Government, which will involve difficult decisions on spending, welfare and tax.