We hope that Lisa Nandy’s appointment as culture secretary stops the revolving door at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Era of culture wars is over, pledges new culture secretary Lisa Nandy, 9 July). There is an overwhelming need for stability if the sector is to develop a coherent culture to tackle the myriad problems that beset it.
Charlotte Higgins refers to some of these (Opinion, 9 July). Most of the problems in her in-tray are traceable to a single cause: underfunding. Just 0.4% of public expenditure is spent on arts and culture – far below comparator nations (such as France and Germany), and the European average spend of 1%.
Yet before the pandemic and the subsequent cost of living crisis devastated the creative industries, in 2018, they contributed £111.7bn to the economy. Financing the arts is an economic investment, not a subsidy. Further, placing the arts and culture sector “down the governmental pecking order” is a product of outdated thinking.
It is now the third-largest sector in the London economy and has massive potential for growth elsewhere. That potential will not be realised, however, without investment or changing the present culture, which often resembles a job-creation scheme for white, privately educated men.
We hope Lisa Nandy will keep her promises to make culture “more inclusive” and to “walk alongside” people to bring change – not stand in the way, like previous governments. We hope she will listen to the experts on the ground rather than those friends of friends who now fill seats on governing bodies. The culture sector unions are brimming with ideas. As well as reading Jennie Lee’s 1965 white paper, she could do worse than cast an eye over our policy document Making Culture Ours, which sets out a strategic approach to rescuing the sector.
Tom Taylor
Co-secretary, creative and leisure industries committee, TUC London, East and South East region
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