Scale of challenge facing cultural organisations ignored

MPs have stressed that the government has consistently failed to recognise the exact scale of challenge facing culture, sport and tourism.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has said that the coronavirus crisis presents the biggest threat to UK's cultural infrastructure, institutions and workforce in a generation. However, the government has been ‘too slow’ to respond to the needs of the cultural and sporting sectors, with many organisations facing an ‘existential threat’ to their survival.

In a wide-ranging report, the DCMS Committee says that the response to the crisis by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has been hampered by the department’s lack of spending power and a fundamental misunderstanding across government of the needs, structures and vital social contribution of sectors such as the creative industries.

It also warns that the loss of performing arts institutions and cultural workers would put at risk the government's 'levelling up' agenda and reverse decades of progress in cultural provision, diversity and inclusion.

Julian Knight, chair of the committee, said: “We are witnessing the biggest threat to our cultural landscape in a generation. The failure of the government to act quickly has jeopardised the future of institutions that are part of our national life and the livelihoods of those who work for them.

“Our report points to a department that has been treated as a ‘Cinderella’ by government when it comes to spending, despite the enormous contribution that the DCMS sectors make to the economy and job creation. We can see the damaging effect that has had on the robustness and ability of these areas to recover from the Covid crisis. The £1.57 billion support is welcome but for many help has come too late. We urge the government to act on our recommendations, to recognise the value these sectors provide and imagine how much bleaker the outcome for all without their survival.”

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport disagreed that it had been too slow, and insisted thousands of organisations and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the sector had been saved by its furlough and loan schemes.