Local government culture commission launches

A new commission into English councils' culture funding will make the case for investment at all levels of government.

Submissions and case studies are being sought for the Independent Commission on Culture and Local Government, an initiative of the Local Government Association (LGA) backed by a cross-country coalition of experts and chaired by Baroness Lola Young.

Leading figures including Arts Council England Chair Nicholas Serota, Historic England Chief Executive Duncan Wilson, cultural industries researchers Hasan Bakhshi and Katy Shaw, and Cultural Recovery Commissioner Neil Mendoza will hold four evidence sessions between April and July with an eye to producing a final report in December.

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That report hopes to both spell out and shape understanding of the value of cultural funding and "influence how culture is included in narratives around pandemic recovery and levelling up", the LGA says.

Chair Gerald Vernon-Jackson hopes the commission will be a "wake up call" to a central Government he believed remains "far more interested in metal bashing" industries than £115bn creative sector.

"In a time when local government finances are under a huge amount of pressure, if you want us to keep doing discretionary spending on things like the arts, central government need to recognise what we do - and value what we do."

He said the commission will also help build an argument for arts funding in local settings.

"If I have to look a council leader in the eye and say, 'you might want to spend that money on social services but you need to spend it on the arts', I need to have a really strong base of evidence."

Young added: "This commission is an opportunity to demonstrate the impact of the incredible work cultural services and organisations are doing to support their communities up and down the country".

Ministers 'ignorant'

Councils support half of England's theatres, 350 museums, 3,000 libraries, and provide more than £1bn in culture funding every year.

"Arts Council [England] puts in half that amount but Government doesn't seem to notice," Vernon-Jackson said.

He wrote seven times to former Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden before getting a meeting: "When we told him about what local government put into culture, he said he didn't know."

It's civil servants, not ministers, who are responsible for this oversight, he said.

But with the levelling up agenda firmly entrenched in funders' priorities, there is a clear opportunity to make the case for culture.

"In terms of reach into communities, local government is massive," Vernon-Jackson said.

"If the Government is interesting in levelling up in a cultural world, local government are the people who do that."

Underpinned by partnership

The commission will test four "propositions" about council culture funding and its relationship to levelling up.

Speakers will be invited to contribute their views on funding's contribution to economic recovery, social mobility, health and a sense of place, with the aim of improving advocacy and public sector relationships and building a vision for local authority arts funding in the future.

A theme of partnership will run throughout discussions on each of these topics: "We will be testing the proposition that collaboration between national government, arms-length funders and local government at a place-based level is essential," the LGA says.

A short film will be made around the key themes arising from each of the roundtable talks and form part of the project's final report.