White Paper on Culture

The SoA is preparing a submission for Government on the subject of culture. Ed Vaizey has announced the Government’s plans to produce a White Paper on Culture – the first in 50 years – and has called for public input. Simultaneously the Labour opposition has noted its own plans to focus on culture in their agenda.

The SoA will be making suggestions based on four key principles:

• Culture plays an important role in the economy and investment is essential – as two recent reports have clearly shown.
• Culture also has an immeasurable intrinsic value.
• Culture relies on creators and they must be valued, rewarded and supported.
• Literature and writing – in all its forms – is a key part of our culture and must not be overlooked.

We will be posting our full submission which will include detailed and specific recommendations to Government on areas as diverse as benefits, libraries and contract law on our website in December. In the meantime, you can get involved directly – on Twitter with the hashtag #OurCulture and on the DCMS’s digital discussion platform.

Early Day Motion on the Contribution of Culture

Two reports have recently made the case for the importance of culture to the economy and the benefits of public investment in the sector: ‘The contribution of the arts and culture industry to the national economy’ (Arts Council England) and ‘How public investment in the arts contributes to growth in the creative industries’ (Creative Industries Federation). The key findings of the ACE report are:

The GVA [Gross Value Added] of the creative industries experienced growth between 2012-2013 of 9.9%, which is higher than any other industrial sector, including financial services. Our publicly invested arts still return 0.4% of the UK’s GVA and contribute indirectly to GVA through tourism, overseas trade and regional growth.

• arts and culture is worth £7.7 billion GVA to our economy
• arts and culture industries generated £15.1 billion in turnover in 2012-13, an increase of 26% since 2010
• for every pound generated by the arts and culture industry, an additional £1.06 is generated in the economy

An Early Day Motion has been tabled in Parliament, to recognise the findings of the new reports, and 'asks the Government to bring forward policies which recognise the important role public investment in arts and culture plays in supporting this vital industry'.