On Wednesday this week (4 December), the Scottish Government announced their draft budget for 2025-26. It was an announcement that Scotland’s culture sector has been anxiously awaiting for months – a sector which has been hanging in the balance, and hanging on by a thread.
Hope, optimism and resilience have been increasingly hard to find in recent times. 2024 has been a marathon. Artists, freelancers and organisations alike have been pushed to their limits, and Wednesday’s draft budget announcement was set to be the make or break of our collective future.
Culture funding will see an increase of £34m next year, with £20m of this being directly allocated to support Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Funding programme. This takes the total budget for the programme to £54m for 2025-26. Non-domestic rates support will be provided to music venues, the Culture Collective and Creative Communities programmes will return, and the Youth Music Initiative budget will increase by 3%. Additionally, £4m has been allocated for Scottish Festivals, doubling the EXPO Festival Fund to expand its reach beyond festivals in Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as providing funding for the Festivals Partnership. And looking ahead, the Scottish Government have stated that they plan an additional incremental increase of £20m to culture in 2026-27, moving us one step closer to their pledge of an additional £100m annually by 2028-29.
This week’s announcement was a significant and crucially important win. I’d like to thank Angus Robertson, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, for his ongoing efforts to secure a sustainable future for Scotland’s culture sector, as well as to the thousands of artists, creative practitioners and cultural organisations who have helped secure this vital sector investment through campaign work. We now await the draft budget being voted upon by the Scottish Parliament in February 2025, and we implore MSPs across all parties to vote in favour of it. Our sector urgently needs stability.
For the 281 cultural organisations that are awaiting the outcomes of Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Funding Programme at the end of January, this week’s announcement has provided at least some increased confidence in positive outcomes. However, the £54m allocated to the programme from the Scottish Government still falls significantly short of the £87.5m total ask from applicants. Tough decisions still await.
Ahead of these announcements, it’s important to reflect on the challenges the sector has faced this year, recognising that it’s a steep road back. The months of 2024 have been bookmarked with funding applications, letters and campaigns, all while still trying to deliver cultural activity – for the benefit of everyone in Scotland – in an increasingly challenging environment. Limited public funding, standstill public funding, applying for public funding, threats of funding cuts, closure of culture funds, campaigning to save culture funds, re-opening of culture funds, massively over-subscribed culture funds, delayed funding announcements, declining commercial revenue, rising costs, overtime, more overtime, lack of opportunity, lack of job security, lack of organisational security, lack of sector security. These are only the headlines – underneath them, individuals and businesses alike have been facing burnout, stress and existential threats to their work and livelihoods
As a sector, we know we’ve not been alone in our struggles, and that many other industries have been facing significant challenges due to the external factors which have impacted both the Scottish and wider UK economy. But we’ve also been acutely aware of the fact that, for a relatively small investment into culture, many of the challenges that make both entering and sustaining a career in the sector could be mitigated, and additionally, there would be a triple bottom line return for Scotland; economically, socially and culturally.
In the final weeks leading up to Wednesday’s draft budget announcement, the sector united to launch the #InvestInCulture campaign. Backed by key cultural figures including Shirley Manson (Garbage), Rod Jones (Idlewild / Post Electric), Turner Prize Nominated artist Nathan Coley, actor and director David Hayman and playwright and screenwriter Rona Munro, together we joined forces to highlight the fundamental need for sector investment, and the transformational power and benefits which culture brings to everyone in Scotland.
From an economic perspective, not only do the creative industries generate significant returns for the Scottish economy (currently more than £5 billion annually, which is driven by over 15,000 businesses which employ more than 70,000 people), but they also support and drive wider economic returns contributed by other sectors too (tourism and hospitality are prime examples). Music tourism alone contributed £581m to the Scottish economy in 2022. All of this revenue helps fund our public services. It’s a sound investment (pun intended), but the economic benefits which music and the wider culture sector brings is only just the start.
What are we without culture? Who are we without culture? Culture helps us find purpose, connection and understanding; of ourselves, society and the world around us. Acting as both a window and a mirror, it provides the nuance needed for reflecting and understanding the diverse lives we lead; comforting and inspiring us as we navigate the highs and lows. The human condition.
You can’t be what you can’t see, and through culture, we have the opportunity to see ourselves. We can be ourselves. Across Scottish society, the ripple effect of culture’s intrinsic power brings community, compassion and empathy. It dismantles barriers, enables connection and brings us closer together. It tells the stories of life in Scotland, to ourselves and to the world, driving our ever-evolving sense of national identity, promoting collective wellbeing and allowing us to reflect on our place in the world. To reflect on the nation we want to be. Culture not only helps fund our public services, but it can also reduce our reliance on them. As an investment, it really is a triple bottom line return.
Whilst key challenges still remain, our sector enters 2025 with a renewed sense of hope, confidence and optimism. Next month’s Creative Scotland Multi-Year funding decisions will be another crucial moment for our collective future, and sector-wide, we need to work collaboratively to ensure that Scottish culture is supported, safeguarded and sustained in the months and years to come.
Robert Kilpatrick
CEO and Creative Director
Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA)