Agenda item

The Chair welcomed Elisabeth Bouchard, Strategy Lead for Culture, Tourism and Civil Society, and Harman Saggar, Head Economist for Arts, Heritage and Tourism, to the meeting and invited Ian Leete, Senior Adviser, to introduce the report.

Ian introduced the report which provided information related to the Levelling Up White paper, outlining how it intended to deliver on its flagship policy. The white paper also included additional detail on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF), which was designed to replace EU funding streams. The report identified the key elements of the white paper related to culture, tourism and sport, and sought the Board’s views on priority engagement and lobbying issues on levelling up. It also sought to test initial LGA narratives related to levelling up with the Board.

Elisabeth provided a brief overview of the missions set out within the white paper and information which related to pride and place. In addition, she set out the following points:

·       Conversations continued to take place between the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) which related to pride and place.

·       It was intended that the missions set out within the white paper be cross-sector, offering ‘bottom-up’ solutions. Also, that the missions provide consistency and clarity, increase performance in all areas and closing gaps, whilst bringing individuals together to talk about an ambitious, bold agenda.

·       The white paper also focused on the role of cultural place-making, sport, and tourism, as well as boosting productivity.

·       DCMS were working with arms-length bodies to improve the join-up across the different work within sectors.

Harman presented a series of slides which related to the Culture and Heritage Capital Framework. The first iteration of the framework had been published in January 2021, and it set out the ambitions and approach of the programme. The slides covered a number of points, which included the reasoning behind the culture and heritage approach, the four key points, the framework model, which assets were being considered (collections and movable heritage, landscapes and archaeology, built historic environment, digital assets and performance) and the key outputs of the programme.

Board Members made a number of comments and asked questions which related to the following points:

·       The visitor economy and its importance to developing new capacity and underperforming parts of the country.

·       The value of world heritage and it’s recognition through planning and funding.

·       Addressing the gap in the evidence-base and the importance of understanding that one size does not fit all.

·       The importance of culture in productivity and in working alongside government to drive gains through culture, the visitor economy and sport.

·       Addressing issues related to health inequality by providing better access to green, open spaces, and sporting events.

·       The UK City of Culture provided cities with the opportunity to be in the spotlight and sell themselves.

·       The role of governance and changes throughout the white paper.

·       Investment in place and amplifying its importance to the value that place had in society.

·       The importance of access to leisure centres and the need for government funding to prevent leisure centre closures.

·       The importance of Creative Industries in terms of economic power.

·       Social prescribing and the need to discourage unnecessary NHS appointments and drug prescriptions.

·       Access to the relevant venues and infrastructure to be able to host events and festivals.

·       A concern was raised which related to high street recovery in London.

Harman and Ian responded to Board Members’ comments, setting out the following points:

·       Additional information could be circulated to Board Members which related to a conference which had taken place recently.

·       LGA officers would continue to work with DCMS to promote the Culture and Heritage Capital Framework within Councils.

·       Funding received from government through recent announcements were positive and investments continued to be made within London.

·       DCMS’ tourism team continued to focus on tourism and work to conduct a policy sprint into the North-East region, the lowest performing region in terms of visitor economy. The tourism team would be notified of the comments made by Board Members.

Decision:

·       Board Members noted the report.

Action:

• Officers to circulate additional conference-related evidence from DCMS to Board Members.