Creative Scotland has £6.6m budget cut reimposed

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries nation-wide

The Scottish government has reimposed a £6.6m budget cut on arts body Creative Scotland.

The cut had been reversed earlier this year after a campaign by the Scottish arts sector, but was reintroduced a week ago in the autumn budget.

Creative Scotland will use National Lottery funding reserves to plug the gap, but said the moment was a "tipping point" for an already fragile sector.

The Scottish government said the funding would resume next year.

Speaking at Holyrood on Thursday, Creative Scotland CEO Ian Munro said: "Reimposing this cut, just two weeks before regularly funded organisations were due to receive their quarterly payments would amount to a forty per cent reduction.

"It's enormous in terms of an already fragile sector. This would have been a tipping point."

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The board of Creative Scotland agreed to use their National lottery reserve fund. They advised ministers that it was their only source of additional funding.

Mr Munro continued: "It is a one off and although it stabilises the situation, it will deepen the concern within the sector about support for culture. It's an erosion of faith and trust.

"People are exhausted, trying to keep the show on the road - literally."

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries nation-wide.

They provide funding for projects including individual artists, musicians, charities, theatres and film studios.

Mr Munro said the "perfect storm" of Covid, the cost-of-living crisis and standstill funding could result in job losses, cuts and the demise of whole organisations.

The Edinburgh festival fireworks have already fallen victim to budget cuts

Other arts bodies have warned that standstill funding had already compromised what they're able to offer.

Francesca Hegyi, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh International Festival told MSPs that events had already been scaled back due to a lack of funding.

She said: "There was no fireworks concert this year, because we didn't have the three quarters of a million pounds required to put it on.

"It's a consequence of a series of choices the Scottish Government has made over the last 15 years not to invest in culture.

"We have a strategy which talks about enabling out our sector to grow and recover and we have actions that are not consistent with that."

'Cultural vandalism'

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said the government had to prioritise value for money for every taxpayer in Scotland.

He said: "Over the past five years, the Scottish Government has provided £33m to Creative Scotland to compensate for a shortfall in National Lottery Funding and we agreed to provide £6.6m to cover this year's shortfall.

"As a result of rising costs and pressure on budgets across government, made more challenging as a result of rising UK inflation, we are unable to provide funding to support the lottery shortfall this year.

"However, I expect this funding will be able to be provided as part of next year's budget, subject to the usual parliamentary process."

Scottish Conservative MSP Donald Cameron called the move an "insult to Scotland's struggling art sector."

The Scottish Liberal Democrats called the cuts "cultural vandalism".