Arts and Culture: Economic Regeneration

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Tuesday 29th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shipley]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Quin, for initiating this debate. I also extend my welcome to the Minister in his new role and look forward very much indeed to hearing his response.

I should declare that I am a trustee of Audio Visual Arts North East and a patron or supporter of several of the cultural venues in Newcastle and Gateshead. I spent several years over the past decade helping to build up arts and cultural venues in the north-east. I did it for three main reasons. The first was to widen knowledge and participation, because a more civil, equal and inclusive society is created when learning opportunities, the performing arts, libraries and museums are available to all. There is also evidence that health and well-being can improve as a result.

Secondly, we wanted to make the north-east an attractive venue for tourism and inward investment. I pay tribute to the leadership role of Gateshead, which the noble Baroness, Lady Quin, mentioned. The Sage Gateshead and the Baltic were major contributions to changing the image of Tyneside and the north-east and increasing tourism to the area. Newcastle, of course, played its role with a number of cultural buildings and venues, which were either expanded or newly built in the past decade—for example, Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books.

Overall, the cultural provision in the north-east of England is very strong. That has an economic value through the multiplier effect. I was interested recently to see that Durham’s Lumiere festival in 2011 brought £4.3 million into the local economy against spending by the county council of £400,000.

Those three principles still stand today; nothing has changed. Of course, that list would apply to all parts of the United Kingdom, not just the north-east. Generally, it would seem that for every £1 of public money invested in a cultural venue, there will be an average return of £4 to the wider economy.

For Newcastle Gateshead this has meant a major expansion in economic benefits. There are more than 2,000 full-time equivalent jobs across the north-east run by the 10 cultural venues in Newcastle Gateshead, with 1,200 full- and part-time jobs in Newcastle Gateshead itself. There have been 3.6 million attendances at cultural venues in Newcastle Gateshead and 900,000 learning and participation opportunities. Helpfully, nearly 900 volunteers are involved in delivering support. I quote those figures because they are impressive and we should recognise the enormous achievement of arts and cultural organisations in the region and congratulate the staff and the boards of those organisations on their achievements. We do not want to lose that, which is a point that I will return to later.

Underpinning all of this is the issue of free access. That is an absolute cornerstone of a civilised society. Free access to museums, galleries and libraries provides opportunities for individuals to develop themselves, to encourage reading, seeing, listening, thinking, learning and taking part. Free access is about ensuring that we actually deliver equal opportunities. Where payment has to be required in the performing arts, schemes that help those on low incomes must continue to be promoted by the Arts Council and all receiving organisations.

The fact that spending cuts would have an effect around now is not a surprise. Several years ago, we knew in Newcastle Gateshead that we had to ensure that the large increase in capacity in the number of existing and new cultural organisations could withstand a reduction in public spending whatever the Government, and that this would inevitably need to be done whoever won the election in 2010. Of course, in the north-east, the collapse of Northern Rock and the loss of so much of its cultural funding support from its high point a few years earlier have not helped. Close working, joint marketing, better procurement and maximising charitable donations can all help even if they cannot solve the impact of all of the cuts.

I pay tribute to Arts Council England because it has managed its funding cuts thoughtfully. Rightly, it demands excellence when it allocates money and it is right to emphasise the interrelationship of libraries, museums and cultural organisations. There is a crucial role now for the Arts Council to ensure that its support is not overconcentrated in London and is distributed across England to develop greater equality of funding and thereby of access. A very small switch in the proportions of Arts Council funding between London and the rest of England could have a major impact on the viability of organisations outside London.

Account must be taken by the Arts Council of the capacity of a region to develop its philanthropic base. So many firms are headquartered in London it is little wonder that levels of sponsorship are so very much higher in London. Nevertheless, more is now being done by the Arts Council to develop the potential for private giving across England through its funding streams and I want to recognise the progress that is being made.

Councils have an enhanced role now through increasing localism. I referred earlier to health and well-being. Now that substantial funds are being redirected from the National Health Service to local councils from April for the promotion of public health through health and well-being boards, the application of that money needs a lot of thought. Well-being is about the whole person and it seems to be right that public health moneys could be used to alleviate cuts in arts, culture, libraries and learning where a benefit in terms of well-being could be the identified. I refer, for example, to neighbourhood libraries, where closure could reduce well-being.

I turn now to the pupil premium. In the north-east of England it is worth more than £100 million additional money in the year from this coming April. I raise this because more than 600,000 children participated in an event at a cultural venue in Newcastle Gateshead in 2011-12. It is reasonable to suggest that some of this growing pupil premium could be used by the schools receiving it to ensure equal opportunities for their children. Children need their horizons expanding and it cannot all be done within the boundaries of the school itself. I am unaware that there are any discussions or initiatives taking place on this matter, but given the scale of the pupil premium now and from April it needs to be.

I want to mention the importance of artist development programmes. I am impressed by the potential here and cite as an example the record of Generator—the leading music development agency in the UK set up 20 years ago with the aim of developing a more sustainable music industry in the north. It was later asked by the Arts Council to assist other fledgling agencies in policy and programme development, governance and funding. It has managed to lever in £4 for every £1 received from the Arts Council, which has enabled it to support new talent, help create 50 new businesses, assist 107 SMEs and a further 173 new SMEs, as part of its business support programme which was completed in December. Generator works with emerging bands and artists; mentoring and showcasing talent; providing key help such as PR, booking agents, sources of funding and securing media exposure. Such a comprehensive and progressive artist development programme fills a gap in the market for effective development of artists at any stage of their careers. There may be potential for replicating it.

In conclusion, we need some clear thinking given the budgetary position of cultural organisations—not just in the north east but across England. I very much hope that all of those involved in current discussions on funding for arts and cultural venues, libraries and museums will think carefully about how each can help. By this I mean councils, venues, the Arts Council, sponsors, universities, colleges, and schools—particularly those in receipt of significant sums from the pupil premium. If you close a venue, you cannot reopen it easily. The loss and the damage could be profound.

Common sense demands that everyone works just a bit harder to find a solution. I want to agree entirely with what the noble Baroness, Lady Quin, said about the need now for people to take a step back and to work out how they can move forward and protect the cultural and artistic venues and libraries which are currently under such very great pressure.