Scotland

The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to announce £8.6m of funding for Edinburgh’s festivals in tomorrow's Spring Budget.

The Independent reports that some of the funding could go towards a permanent HQ for the Fringe.

Hunt said: “From Edinburgh’s Fringe to the International Festival, the city is world-famous for culture and it’s right to support it and help it grow.

“Millions of people flock to Edinburgh from all over the globe for its festivals, creating opportunities for incredible comedians, musicians, artists and more, as well as thousands of jobs each year – all contributing immensely to the UK’s shared economy.”

UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said the money "will help us safeguard a future where upcoming British talent can capitalise on the opportunities on offer".

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack declared the funding “fantastic news for Scotland". 

Creative Scotland is seeking to address the inconsistency in rates of pay for freelancers across its funding programmes.

Although it does not set rates of pay itself, Scotland's arts funding body said it wants to ensure that industry-standard rates are equitably and consistently applied.

Alastair Evans, Interim Director, Strategy at Creative Scotland said: “Creative Scotland is committed, through any activities we support, to ensure that artists and professionals working in the creative sector are paid fairly with appropriate terms and conditions and employment opportunities.”

Research to identify key priorities for change is being carried out by consultancy practice Culture Radar and Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University.

They are currently seeking 'sector representatives' who have either made or been included in Creative Scotland funding applications, to contribute online to rates of pay consultations between 27 February - 2 March 2023. 

Evans added: “We encourage as many people as possible working across the industry to contribute to this important piece of work.

“This research will help to create the conditions for more meaningful and sustainable opportunities to work across, and progress through, the sector.”

Central Edinburgh venue the Rose Theatre is on the market for offers in excess of £3m.

The theatre’s owner, Danish ballet dancer and choreographer Peter Schaufass, says he decided to close the theatre and put it up for sale as running two venues simultaneously had become “too much” for him.

He now plans to concentrate on developing his other venue, Edinburgh’s Saint Stephen’s Church, into a “world-class” venue.

The Rose Theatre is a Grade B-listed venue built in 1912, which hosts a 340-main seat hall alongside a second basement theatre, attic performance space and cabaret bar.

“I sincerely hope that [the Rose Theatre] will be bought by another creative operator within the industry that can take the venue further forward,” Schaufass said.

The director of a leading arts venue in the highlands of Scotland has voiced concerns over cuts to the Scottish Government’s arts and culture budget.

Charlotte Mountford, Lyth Arts Centre Director, penned a letter to Members of Scottish Parliament representing the Highlands and Islands, which calls for a reversal of the cuts to funding body Creative Scotland.

"Myself and my colleagues are calling for a reversal of the cut which is a relatively small amount (£6.6m of the overall Scottish Government budget of £59.8bn) which will have a disproportionately negative impact on a whole range of outcomes including jobs, the wellbeing of Scotland’s people and communities, and on the economy in general," the letter reads.

Lyth Arts Centre is Scotland’s most northernly mainland arts centre and has focused on delivering arts-based wellbeing activities after noticing a steep decline in its local community’s wellbeing since Covid.

The centre is not currently one of Creative Scotland’s regularly funded organisations, of which the funding body has said it expects to be forced to reduce in the wake of cuts to its budget.

A Scottish Government spokesperson told the John O’Groat Journal: "When the Scottish Government is facing difficult decisions about funding, the time is right for Creative Scotland to draw on the lottery reserves available to them".

The comment echoes remarks made by Scotland’s Culture Secretary Angus Robertson, who previously defended the decision to reduce the funding.

Proposed new restrictions on the short-term letting of accommodation in Scotland could have a drastic impact on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, festival organisers have claimed.

In a submission to the Scottish Government’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, Festivals Edinburgh – which represents 11 of the city’s annual festivals – said the restrictions would make Edinburgh “increasingly unaffordable and unfeasible” for both festival participants and visitors, shrinking the Fringe by as much as a third.

The new restrictions, which are now expected to be introduced in October having originally being scheduled for March, will require hosts of short-term lets to have a licence or risk being fined.

The restrictions follow City of Edinburgh Council’s own new rules, introduced in September, which require anyone renting out an entire dwelling that is not their principal home to apply for planning permission.

Festivals Edinburgh claim that the impact of the restrictions could result in the loss of 700 jobs and a £30m hit to Edinburgh’s economy.

The body has called for exemptions to be made in Edinburgh during August, to take into account the huge increase in demand for short-term accommodation during the busy festivals period.

In it own submission to Holyrood, the campaign group PLACE Edinburgh took a counter view.

It said that the proposed restrictions were already having a positive impact on the housing stock in Scotland’s capital, “increasing the availability, affordability and liveability of housing, as investors sold off their stock in advance of the impending implementation date”.

The Scottish Government has announced an additional £500,000 of funding for Museums Galleries Scotland this financial year to help tackle ongoing cost of living challenges.

Scotland’s Culture Minister Neil Gray confirmed the funding during the launch of Scotland’s Museums and Galleries Strategy 2023-2030 in Edinburgh last Thursday (2 January).

He said the funding will help increase resilience in Scotland’s museum sector and will enable more energy efficiency projects to be funded.

The commitment is one of the first funding distributions to be made since the Scottish Government announced it will be cutting funding levels to arts and culture by 10% this year.

CEO of Museums Galleries Scotland Lucy Casot “warmly welcomed” the additional support.

“We had a huge response to our Resilience Fund and we are very pleased that this funding will enable us to support more museums and galleries to manage ongoing cost of living challenges and to undertake energy efficiency projects,” she added.