UK arts funding drops 16% since 2017

Total arts investment from UK national funding bodies has fallen by 16% in real terms since 2017, representing an overall trending drop of more than £189m, according to new research commissioned by performers' union Equity.

Actress and Equity member Olivia Coleman called the decline “shocking” and said it showed that the arts sector and its workforce “has been neglected, despite its huge contribution to the UK’s standing in the world, and our public life”.

In the period between 2017, the year Theresa May won the UK General Election, and 2022/23, Equity's data shows that arts funding fell by 11% in England, 30% in Wales, and 16% in Northern Ireland but grew in Scotland by 2%.

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The analysis, carried out by the Autonomy Institute, uses data from Freedom of Information requests submitted to every arts council in the UK with linear regression used to create an estimated trendline that mitigates funding spikes. Equity has used the figures to create an Arts Investment Tracker, which it says can compare how funding has changed in each nation at a constituency level for periods of up to 12 years until 2022/23.

With the parliamentary constituencies updated to match recent boundary changes, Equity’s figures show that in Ely and East Cambridgeshire, where Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer is running for MP, there has been a 23% increase in culture funding since 2017, whereas Bristol Central, where shadow Culture Secretary Thangam Debbonaire is seeking election, has had a steep 61% decline.

Elsewhere in the southwest, for the same period, Bath and Weston Super Mare have both seen funding gains of 105% and 167%, respectively.

Some regions targeted for levelling up funding, such as Walsall and Bloxwich (+253%) and Wolverhampton South East (+129%), have also seen significant increases since 2017, while there were drops in Manchester Central (-56%) and Leeds South (-34%).

Equity's data for the five years to 2022/23 indicates a similarly mixed picture across the capital. Islington North showed a 74% increase, while Islington South and Finsbury had a drop of 74%. The City of London Westminster and Battersea also saw declines of 46% and 105%, respectively, while Dulwich and West Norwood saw an increase of 55%.

Extending back to 2014, the year before David Cameron won his second term as Prime Minister, the trend figures up until 2022/23 demonstrate an overall decline in UK funding of 10%, amounting to £120.3m, with reductions of 3% in England, 6% in Wales, 81% in Scotland, and an increase of 4% in Northern Ireland.

'Austerity under governments of every shade'

Equity member and actress Imelda Staunton said the data showed “too many places in the UK have been left without arts funding, depriving audiences and performers alike.”

Calling the arts “essential to the thriving, confident country we all want to live in", Staunton said she wanted to see all political parties “promising much more on the arts”.

“With proper funding, there is no limit to the potential for the arts to inspire and entertain, encouraging both human creativity and economic benefits," said Staunton.

Colman said the figures showed “how government funding for the arts has been falling for decades” and called upon “whoever wins the coming election” to “urgently bring forward plans to invest in the arts and entertainment here”.

She added: “A lack of government funding increasingly means that only the wealthy can afford a ticket to the show or to build a career working in the industry. Only some people are able to share in the stories being told."

Equity General Secretary Paul W Fleming said the arts and entertainment industries had been subject to “central government austerity” for 20 years “under governments of every shade”.

The launch of the funding tracker forms part of Equity's campaign to Stop the Cuts and Save the Arts, with five policy demands, including increasing UK arts and entertainment funding to 0.5% of GDP.

The union is also seeking a halt to the legal exemption that allows casting directories to charge upfront fees to performing artists; a reform of universal credit to provide freelancers with the same protections as the employed; a requirement that all work that receives public subsidy be produced on Equity agreements; and ratification of the Beijing treaty to give unions a statutory right to bargain from – including non-unionised industries like video games and TV commercials.

“Our five election demands – addressed to candidates of all mainstream parties – put reversing the erosion of funding at the top of the list. The other four of our demands focus on the rights of our precarious, freelance membership," said Fleming.

"We need a government which supports our members, and all working people, to get their fair share of the profits they create. There are no creative industries without its workforce; it’s time they were empowered and valued as much by Westminster as they are by audiences across the globe."