Arts funding

Westminster City Council has announced it will set aside £1.8m for arts and culture funding over the next four years.

The council said the money will help fund a range of projects to make culture more accessible to residents and visitors.

It added that it hopes to break down social and economic barriers by extending free cultural opportunities to those facing financial hardship, young people, over-65s, ethnic minority groups, people with disabilities and those experiencing social isolation.

Within the budget is a new annual Culture and Community Grants Programme, which invites local organisations and schools to bid for up to £10,000 of funding to help deliver community-based projects. 

Tim Roca, Deputy Leader at Westminster Council and Cabinet Member for Young People, Learning and Leisure, said: “I’m very excited to announce this new cultural budget that will fund a range of projects across Westminster. 

"This new funding will bring culture directly into our communities and provide a boost for Westminster’s thriving arts scene which attracts so many visitors each year."

The arts will benefit from a record return in Good Causes funding after The National Lottery announced its highest ever sales for the first six months of the 2022/23 financial year.

Total lottery sales increased to £4,063.9m over that period, breaking the £4 billion mark for the first time in the 28-year history of The National Lottery and outperforming last year’s total by £102.5m (+2.6%).

The half-year success has been attributed to record digital sales.
 
Good causes funding – of which the arts receives 20% – totalled £956.5m, an increase of £72m (+8.1%) on last year.

This takes the total generated for Good Causes since The National Lottery launched in 1994 under Camelot to £47bn.

Czech lottery business Allwyn will take over Camelot’s lottery contract in 2024 and has previously said it will increase the amount the arts receives through Good Causes funding.

“In this hugely testing economic period, I am proud that my team’s remarkable performance builds on previous years of record ticket sales and returns to Good Causes – and extends our track record of delivering for people across the UK,” Camelot Chairman Sir Hugh Robertson said.

“With just over a year to run until the start of the next licence period, I am confident that The National Lottery has never been in better shape.”

A £120m celebration of British creativity attracted a total of 2.8 million visitors, newly published audience data shows.

As well as 2.8 million people visiting free live events for the Unboxed festival, 13.5 million accessed digital and broadcast content and 1.7 million took part in learning, volunteer and community participation activities, organisers claim.

The headline figure includes the television audience of a special edition of the BBC programme Countryfile broadcast last month, which featured a 15-minute segment of content created by Unboxed.

The figures fall significantly short of a “stretch target” of 66 million set by the festival’s chief creative officer, Martin Green, who recently left Unboxed to run next year’s Eurovision song contest in Liverpool.

The National Audit Office is currently conducting an official probe into the value for money provided by the government-funded festival - widely dubbed 'The Festival of Brexit' - following a critical report by the DCMS Select Committee which concluded that the investment was "an irresponsible use of public money".

Stuart Andrew, the Minister for Sport, Tourism and Civil Society, said the festival had “taken culture to the doorsteps of millions in communities right across the UK” and “inspired people who attended events, got involved online or watched on TV”.

Since February, 10 free Unboxed projects have opened across the UK. These include a decommissioned gas platform called See Monster in Weston-super-Mare and a trail through the solar system called Our Place in Space in Northern Ireland, Liverpool and Cambridge.

The Association of British Orchestras (ABO) has called on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to put in place measures to support the UK’s orchestral sector in this week's Autumn Statement in the wake of cus to funding from Arts Council England (ACE).

Judith Webster, Chief Executive of ABO, said she is “deeply concerned” by the impact of the removal of some organisations from the ACE's National Portfolio and “significantly reduced” funding for others.

“We are particularly concerned with our members working in opera and contemporary music, where the biggest funding reductions have fallen,” she said. 

“Continued support for our sector is particularly needed at a time when orchestras are still in the early stages of recovery, rebuilding the confidence of live audiences and dealing with the headwinds from the cost-of-living crisis and Brexit.”

The ABO has urged the Chancellor to use Thursday's Autumn Statement to extend the temporary 50% uplifted Orchestra Tax Relief, which is currently due to reduce to 35% from April 1 next year and return to 25% on April 1, 2024.

“An extension to the 50% rate is the critical measure which will allow UK orchestras to rebuild income streams and plan confidently for the future,” Webster said."