Arts funding

Companies are yet to receive Culture Recovery Fund grants that need to be used by the end of the month. Some fear the money may never arrive.

The city aims to add 3,000 jobs to its cultural sector by 2031 - half of them from underrepresented groups - as its current offer lacks "the power to engage all our diverse communities".  

Grants of up to £5m are available for capital works outside of London, while libraries and museums are also eligible for a slice of the resurrected suite of funds.

Artists contracted for the ill-fated project want the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art closed, alleging a lack of appropriate representation and racist attitudes at the board level mean it is "not fit for purpose".

Arts universities have joined the sector in protesting the Government's "counterproductive and contradictory" funding proposals.

MPs investigating the fund's delivery were told applications will only be reassessed if there was a breach of process, not over a "subjective view", all but dashing the hopes of one Blackpool venue.