Theatre bosses call for £500m for building repairs

Co-CEOs of the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) & UK Theatre, Claire Walker and Hannah Essex, have called for the government to invest £500m over the next four years to repair and revitalise theatre buildings.

Their proposal forms part of a response to the 60th anniversary of the publication of Labour’s landmark White Paper, A Policy for the Arts, delivered by the then Arts Minister Jennie Lee. 

Walker and Essex say the £500m investment would ensure venues remain open and at the heart of local communities. They go on to suggest the forthcoming government spending review as an opportunity to pledge the support.

The pair also said the government should harness the current review of Arts Council England to “create a more strategic model of public investment” that encourages artistic risk taking and innovation.

Their recommendations end with the enabling of a Theatre for Every Child programme in three areas of deprivation.

“A small pilot looking to systematically ensure that all children attend the theatre at least once before they leave school (with the desire to roll it out nationally in future) would be a powerful legacy for Jennie Lee,” Walker and Essex wrote.

Published in 1965, A Policy for the Arts was the government’s first-ever White Paper dedicated to the arts and has had only one successor, 2016’s Culture White Paper.