Contribution
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, for this debate and congratulate all three maiden speakers. I declare an interest as a visual artist, but I am afraid that I have no drumming skills.
Any money put into the arts is to be welcomed, and individual arts projects, such as the centre for new writing in Newcastle, doubly so. However, £60 million in Treasury terms is not a great deal of money. The Government will not like me for saying this—or perhaps they will, I do not know—but at present they are largely doing the same thing as the previous Government by putting some money into the already commercialised creative industries, while the arts—in the shape of, for example, our theatres and civic museums, which were mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson—lie under the threat of closure and urgently require funding.
SOLT and UK Theatre say that the addition of five council-owned venues to the Theatres at Risk Register 2025 was “sadly unsurprising”. They have urged the Government to commit £300 million over 10 years to addressing this one specific concern, which is five times the amount of money recently announced. Yet the amount of money needed to put all this right and to fund new projects would still be a drop in the ocean in terms of Treasury funding. As ACE studies show, every pound put into the arts generates £5 of tax revenue, while every job created in the sector creates another 1.65 jobs. There is the evidence that the arts, as well as the more commercialised industries, generate growth.
Of course, this Government should not need to be told that to stint on public investment in this sector is a false economy. I hope the Government are just making a start, but they could, and should, do an awful lot more, and more quickly, particularly where we are in danger of losing the infrastructure entirely. This includes the artists and so many others employed in the creative industries as freelancers, many of whom have seen a downturn in their income in recent years. Will the Government consider the appointment of a freelance commissioner for the creative industries to look at their concerns?
What plans do the Government have to engage with parliamentarians over the concerns of the Welsh National Opera, which urgently needs more funding? For ailing grass-roots music venues, I have three requests for the Government: first, if the voluntary levy on arenas does not work, it should be made mandatory; secondly, they should restore the 75% business rate; and, thirdly, they should put the agent of change principle on a statutory footing. Will the Government do these things?
The Minister will know by now about the concerns of the creative industries in relation to AI. In terms of digital, I also draw the Minister’s attention to the debate on the smart fund, led by the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, in the Data (Use and Access) Bill. The smart fund is a levy put on digital devices to compensate artists for copying their work, which would be a very useful additional fund. I would add to that debate that alignment with similar schemes in Europe could usefully be seen as a significant contribution by DCMS to a reset with the EU.
Will the concern for the arts around Brexit be raised in the 19 May UK-EU summit, if not before? As was pointed out at the recent Carry on Touring event in the Lords, there has been a drop of 74% in artists touring the EU. At the very least, we need a visa-waiver agreement with the EU and the cabotage arrangements radically reformed. But, to be blunt, those who talk against free movement are, however unwittingly, talking against the creative industries, because this is not just about temporary mobility, itself beset with red tape, costs and delay; it is about those important long-term positions in Europe for artists, including classical musicians, which are so much a necessary part of their career structure, now offered only to those with EEA passports. Until we rejoin the single market, our British artists in every medium will always be at a significant disadvantage compared with their European counterparts.
An important part of the arts infrastructure abroad is the British Council—mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Lemos—the future of which is threatened. Will the Government ensure that assets will not be sold off, including buildings and its important collection of contemporary artworks, the loss of which would be tragic both for our culture and for soft power? The Government currently put far less money into the British Council than, for example, Germany does the Goethe-Institut. Will they review that? Will they cancel the £200 million still owed on the Covid loan? Not to do so would be yet another false economy.