Scottish Budget: Creative Scotland has cuts restored but still faces £50m funding black hole next year

Arts agency secures £13m boost months after being targeted

Peter Arnott's play Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape was staged at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh earlier this year. Picture: Fraser Band

Arts agency Creative Scotland has been handed a £13 million boost in the Scottish Budget – but is still facing a funding black hole worth more than £50 million next year.

A controversial £6.6 million funding cut, revived by the Scottish Government in September despite a previous pledge to drop the proposal in the face of widespread criticism across the industry, has been restored for the next financial year.

The funding body has also effectively been repaid the same amount to compensate for having to raid its financial reserves to avoid passing on the 10 per cent on to more than 120 organisations during this financial year.

Tinashe Warikandwa, Jo Freer and Suzanne Magowan starred in a recent production of Dundee Rep at The Steamie. Picture: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

The government’s commitment to increasing culture spending from £180.8m to £196.6 in the next financial year falls well short of calls from the industry body Culture Counts for a £104m increase to help mitigate the impact of a costs crisis, and reduce the risks of venues, organisations and events closing down.

Crucially, Creative Scotland does not yet know how much it will have available ahead of two crucial rounds of decision-making next year on long-term funding bids. It has received £96m worth of applications from 361 different cultural organisations, for a funding pot currently worth around £40m.

The Scottish Budget was announced weeks after First Minister Humza Yousaf promised to “more than double” arts spending in Scotland by 2028 by allocating an additional £100m to the sector.

Deputy First Minister Shona Robison has pledged to allocate “at least” a further £25m in 2025-26, the first year of Creative Scotland’s new “multi-year funding” programme.

Edinburgh International Festival director Nicola Benedetti with First Minister Minister Humza Yousaf and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, honorary president of the Fringe Society at the Scottish Government's festivals reception. Picture Andrew Perry

Creative Scotland has secured the lion’s share of the £15.8m increase in arts funding out of a total culture, constitution and external affairs budget of £280.4m.

An additional £4m has been ring-fenced for Scotland’s national museums and galleries, with a further £700,000 going to national companies like Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet and the National Theatre of Scotland, and £800,000 for V&A Dundee.

Campaign for the Arts director Jack Gamble said: “Since £6.6m was cut from Creative Scotland’s budget in September, thousands have joined our campaign to express the value and importance of public arts funding. It’s thanks to them that we’ve seen the £6.6m restored today, and recommitted for next year.

“But beyond that, the Scottish Government is pledging only £2.6m of new cultural investment.

The Usher Hall is normally one of the main venues used for the Edinburgh International Festival. Picture: Clark James

“It’s nowhere near enough progress on their own £100m target, and nowhere near enough funding to protect and secure cultural access amid a perfect storm of challenges for artists and organisations."

Culture Counts director Lori Anderson said: “In the current climate, any increase is, of course, welcomed, including honouring the commitment to restore Creative Scotland’s 10 per cent cut to grant in aid made in September.

“However, given the warnings that have been made regarding the scale of the crisis facing the culture sector, the ongoing cost crisis and the future levels of demand for funding, the announcement falls far short of the investment levels called for and the promised £100m investment is not being delivered in the timescales when it is most urgently needed.”

A spokesman for Creative Scotland said: “The draft budget is for 2024-25 only so doesn’t impact directly on the multi-year funding process.

Isobel McArthur wrote in Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) and starred in the Tron Theatre show alongside Hannah Jarrett-Scott, Christina Gordon, Tori Burgess and Meghan Tyler. Picture: Matt Crockett

“However, we welcome the commitment to the additional £100m over the next five years and the indication of an additional £25m in 2025-26.

"We will work with the Scottish Government to understand how this will be allocated.

"We will work closely with the government as regards the potential that could be supported through multi-year funding and will seek to maximise the budgets available for this. We intend to announce final decisions in autumn 2024.”

Culture secretary Angus Robertson said: “This has been the most challenging Budget to be delivered under devolution.

“We have not shied away from taking the tough decisions which will ensure we can protect the critical services on which we depend.

“We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to experience the transformative and empowering potential of culture.”