Paul Bristow, Arts Council England, and Chris Murray, Core Cities, to attend
Minutes:
The Chair invited Paul Bristow, Chair of Arts Council England (ACE), and Will Mapplebeck, Core Cities, to introduce their report.
Paul reminded members of the initial independent expert Enquiry into realising the potential of culture in cities which had reported in 2019 and explained that, in the light of Covid-19, it had been decided to reconvene the Enquiry to take an urgent look at how investment in culture could contribute to the recovery effort. This second Enquiry focussed both on the immediate challenges for the sector and also longer-term recovery prospects. It also took a wider geographical perspective. Will added that the Enquiry Board included a broad range of experts in the sector and the CTS Board was represented by Cllrs Coghill and German. He had met with the Minister, Caroline Dinenage MP, to discuss the report and further parliamentary engagement was planned.
Paul briefly outlined the main recommendations from the report:
1. Greater integration of, and support for, Cultural Compacts;
2. Fiscal reform to stimulate cultural enterprises;
3. Transforming employment opportunities in the sector including adjusting the Apprenticeship Levy rules;
4. Incentivising new business models;
5. Providing small-scale capital funding to repurpose local facilities;
6. Ensuring planning reforms support culture-led recovery.
Following the introduction, members raised the following points:
· Concern was expressed that the report was too urban-centric and that the needs of rural and coastal communities were not being addressed. The cultural compact model was not considered to be so suitable for rural areas. As a member of the Enquiry Board, Cllr German said that this report did aim to look at the needs of the wider ‘place’, not just cities, and suggested that the report title be changed to reflect this.
· How would towns and cities be prioritised for investment in new cultural compacts given the proposed 100 limit? At what level would the compacts operate and could other measures – e.g. ticket subsidies - be more widely spread?
· Lobbying Government for the next Spending Review needs to begin now. The cultural sector has the potential to help drive recovery and levelling up as well as employment opportunities, particularly for younger people. The LGA needs to help demonstrate this to Government.
· Members felt it was important that the report didn’t now gather dust and that it is circulated as widely as possible. £80 million investment over 4 years was not considered to be sufficient to address all the issues and so it would need to be demonstrated clearly how areas had benefitted from it in order to argue for additional funding.
· Had any progress been made in forming a network of cultural compacts?
· It was suggested that the Board needed to make a decision on next steps for taking forward a Tourism Levy.
Paul and Will gave the following responses:
· The report’s findings applied to all areas, not just urban ones, although the majority of the country’s cultural assets are located in urban areas. The benefits of these need to be shared across wider areas and linkages with rural locations developed.
· The funding for new compacts was not yet secured but the signs were hopeful.
· It required a wider range of voices, not just ACE, to lobby the Government on the importance of funding for culture.
· An evaluation of the existing 24 cultural compacts was taking place and ACE was keen to work with the LGA to help spread best practice in developing a cultural compact network.
Decisions:
· Culture, Tourism & Sport Board noted the ‘Cultural Cities Recovery’ report.
Actions:
· Chair to seek meeting with Caroline Dinenage, ACE and Core Cities
· Officers to arrange meeting between ACE, Core Cities and the LGA Vice-Presidents
· Report on Tourism Levy to be brought to the CTS Board meeting on 20 January 2021.
· Cultural Cities Recovery report to be shared with LGA City Regions and People and Places Boards.