Lord Freyberg (CB)

My Lords, I speak today with profound concern for our nation’s cultural and heritage sectors. The current funding situation raises serious doubt about our ability to maintain and develop our cultural institutions effectively. I agree with much of what the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, said about how this came about. Since 2010, grant in aid funding has fallen by 18%, and DCMS’s core cultural funding now represents just 0.17% of public spending per capita, relegating the United Kingdom to among Europe’s lowest cultural funders. The impact on communities has been severe. Local authority revenue funding of culture has suffered devastating cuts, at 48% in England and 40% in Wales. Only two in five cultural organisations can adequately maintain their collections. Heritage site visits remain below pre-pandemic levels—although thankfully they are rising, as the noble Baroness, Lady Sater, mentioned—while school visits have dropped by nearly 40%. While I welcome the recent Budget’s increased grant in aid for national museums, focused support for the creative industries and sports facilities, revised tax relief rates, an announcement of cultural infrastructure funding and some stabilisation of local authority funding, these measures fall short of addressing the fundamental challenges. Consider the mounting pressures. National insurance contributions are rising to 15%. Increased minimum wage costs, while essential for supporting workers, burden the charity sector by £1.4 billion, and a 35% reduction in business rates relief will impact heritage venues. The new £1 million cap on agricultural and business property relief threatens centuries-old estates and their collections, a point well made by the noble Lord, Lord Harlech. The £5 billion reduction in levelling-up funding has left vital cultural projects at risk. The National Railway Museum is losing £15 million—one of many—while local authority museums’ urgent plea for a £20 million emergency fund goes unanswered. The Art Fund describes many institutions as in a “perilous and uncertain state”. Local authority museums, vital repositories of community heritage, face redundancies, reduced access and potential closure. While the Government promise to increase DCMS funding to £2.3 billion by 2025-26, this offers little comfort to institutions fighting for survival today. Our regional and local cultural institutions—the bedrock of our nation’s cultural democracy—cannot endure another year of chronic underfunding. Therefore, like the noble Baroness, Lady Sater, I ask what assessment the Government have made of these measures’ cumulative impact on our cultural sector. What plans exist to address local authority museums’ urgent needs? How will the Government ensure that increased operating costs do not trigger widespread closures across our cultural landscape?