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Arts

My Lords, I start with an apology. This has been such a fascinating and wide-ranging debate that in the 20 minutes allocated to me it will be quite impossible to reply to every point made. The thing that struck me most as I listened to the debate was that not a single voice was raised saying, ““Investment in the arts is money not well spent””. The cross-party points made by the noble Lord, Lord Luke, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bonham-Carter, are very important, and it is good that that has happened. I thank my noble friend Lord Bragg, whose own contribution to the arts and the promotion of public understanding of the arts has been, and continues to be, quite outstanding. The speech he made to get this debate up and running was so inspirational that it coloured practically everyone else’s contribution. The Government have an unparalleled commitment to supporting the arts, and, as my noble friend Lord Bragg has noted, since 1997 the arts have benefited from an over 70 per cent increase in funding in real terms to £412 million. It is a figure that bears repetition, since it has made good years of underfunding and supported a renaissance in the arts. The Arts Council has been able to use the increased grant in aid and lottery money to rebuild the arts infrastructure and to stabilise the arts sector. That has created a framework for creativity and a strong springboard for the future. My noble friend quoted many examples to illustrate this truth. He has spoken of the arts as a juggernaut, perhaps literally in the case of the spectacular Sultan’s Elephant seen in London’s streets last weekend, mentioned by the noble Baronesses, Lady McIntosh and Lady Young. The three of us were a small percentage of the one and a half million people who saw it. The Arts Council is not the only body making funding available to support the arts and drive forward our agenda. The six National Lottery distributors for the arts have awarded £2.7 billion to almost 49,000 large and small projects since the lottery began in 1994. These awards have generated a further £4 billion in partnership funding. My noble friend raised concern about the impact the 2012 Olympics could have on arts lottery funding, echoed by the noble Baroness, Lady Young. We envisage that the arts across the capital and around the country will play a major role in the Olympic programme. To that end we have announced the formation of a culture and creativity advisory forum to advise the Government on the development of a cultural programme and how to ensure a cultural legacy across the country as a result of the Olympics. We are setting up a £35 million trust with government and lottery money to fund cultural and sporting events in initiatives across the country in the years leading up to the games. I hope my noble friends have no need to worry about this matter. Everyone has been unanimous in their praise of my noble friend Lord Smith’s initiative in abolishing museum admission fees. As we have heard, that has been an outstanding success story. I was interested, as many noble Lords would have been, in an article in last Saturday’s Daily Telegraph by the arts correspondent Nigel Reynolds. It starts:"““Dusty, stuffy and august? Not nowadays apparently. Britain’s leading museums and art galleries are temples of lust, positively throbbing with passion, and are ideal places to pick up a stranger or go for a date, according to a survey published yesterday . . . Of more than 500 people asked where they would take someone they were trying to impress on a date, 65 per cent chose a museum or gallery, 14 per cent suggested a pub””." That is an amusing diversion, but it shows that young people are going to museums, which is a very significant point. As we have been told, the figure is consistent across the country. Visits to sponsored museums outside London have increased by 72 per cent since December 2001. My noble friend Lord Young asked about outreach programmes and what museums are doing to get young people and new audiences in. I have been out of touch with the museum world since I arrived here on the Front Bench, but all the major and regional museums were doing an enormous amount of outreach work for young children, so I think there is no need to worry. My noble friend Lord Puttnam asks if there is any possibility that the policy of free admissions might be reversed. The thought had not occurred to me. It has been such a brilliant success that it would be extraordinary if any government decided to change the policy. We talked about design and regeneration. As the noble Baroness, Lady Bonham-Carter, said, Tate Modern is an extraordinary example. It generated £100 million in its first year and created an estimated 3,000 jobs, just half of which were specific to Southwark. As in this case, regeneration can be driven by good design, a point mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Howarth. Our cities have been in a spiral of decline, but there is now a change of culture. My noble friend Lord Rogers is very sorry not to be here, but he is in Barcelona, celebrating his wonderful airport opening there. He told me the other day that his view of the urban renaissance city—a city that is well designed, compact and well connected, where people live, work and enjoy leisure time in lively, safe and beautiful places—is enjoying a terrific renaissance. For the first time in 50 years, people have started to move back into city centres. My noble friend tells me that in 1990, although I do not actually believe this statistic, there were 90 people living in the heart of Manchester. He tells me that there are now 25,000 residents in the centre. Over the same period the population of central Liverpool has increased fourfold. My noble friend Lord Howarth, talking about architecture, asks whether the Government will accept the RIBA recommendations to reform PFI to embrace good building design. The Government are supporting good building design through joint sponsorship of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment by the DCMS, and the new Department of Communities and Local Government. PFI is a matter for the Chancellor, but I am sure he will look carefully at RIBA’s recommendations. My noble friend also raised several points on planning, listed buildings, housing development, government policy and our built environment. We will convey these points to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Culture and to other Ministers who have responsibility in those areas. It is perhaps fair to say that few industries are closer to the cutting edge of change, and we recognise that this brings its own challenges. I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Haskel for the insight he has brought to the debate on the need for both the arts and the creative industries to embrace technological change in a rapidly developing world. As an aside, I should say that the protection of intellectual copyright in the digital age is going to be a major challenge to the creative industries. My noble friend Lord Puttnam has also made a compelling case for harnessing the power of digitisation to enhance our understanding and enjoyment of the arts, and to seize the opportunity this offers to widen access to all. From what everyone has said, it is clear that the arts make a huge contribution to the UK economy; the facts, which have been well documented today, speak for themselves, but there is a wider picture that is more difficult to quantify. Innovative design and creative entrepreneurship are the driving force behind many of our most successful companies, including household names such as Dyson. The recent Cox review reminds us that all industries are creative. Seventy per cent of the value of a new car comes from its design and technology. I want to pause here and go back a few years to 1998, when I published Creative Britain, written by the noble Lord, Lord Smith. One of the things that I remember about the publication of that book was phoning up government departments to try to get some statistics on the creative economy. I got not a single statistic. A number of years later it is in the ether that 8 per cent of our gross domestic product comes from the creative industries. As an aside, it would be very interesting at some stage to look very closely at that figure, as it may be rather a low percentage. I have in front of me an article from the International Herald Tribune,which refers to a paper published in Washington last autumn by a think-tank entitled The Economic Value of Intellectual Property. The first paragraph of the article states:"““The value of the ideas and innovation that the U.S. economy generates is more than $5 trillion a year, roughly 42 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and far more than any other nation’s GDP, a study to be released on Friday concludes.""The total, an extrapolation based in part on new Federal Reserve data, is significantly higher than previous calculations of such intangible ‘intellectual property’””." It would be very interesting to get hold of that report and see how it compares with the UK’s definition of the creative industries and whether we are perhaps undervaluing ourselves as we look at what the noble Baroness, Lady Bonham-Carter, called a central part of our economy. Instinctively, I have a feeling that she may be right but we have to do quite a bit of work to validate that. We are a world leader in the creative industries. Nothing shows this more than the wide-ranging international recognition of our definition of the creative industries and constant referral to the creative industries mapping document. UNESCO refers to the document as,"““the groundbreaking first such comprehensive analysis of the economic contribution of creative activities to the overall economic health of the country””," and it has provided the basis for the creative industry policies for countries across the world. The noble Lord, Lord Smith of Finsbury, established the creative industries task force that produced the mapping document. I want to consider briefly some of the major industries that make up the creative industries. I shall mention a few statistics. I make absolutely no apology for that because it is the reality of the contribution of these sectors that will make the model of the creative industries move further into the consciousness of those who look after and are responsible for the finances of our country. The UK film market is the third biggest in the world after USA and Japan. There were 25 inward investment productions in 2005, with a UK production value of £312 million, and 62 UK co-productions with a UK spend of £91 million. It is a thriving industry helped by tax relief, which I shall come on to in relation to theatre in a moment. My noble friend Lord Harrison made a very important point about the British Film Institute, and referred particularly to its archive, which is an extraordinary national resource. The fashion industry makes an amazing contribution to the economy. As of 2004 there are 1,400 designer fashion businesses employing more than 110,000 people, generating £2 billion worth of exports. Our music industry is the market leader in Europe and the third largest in the world. The noble Lord, Lord Colwyn, brilliantly positioned jazz as a very important part of that culture. We noted what he said about government funding. Similarly, the fascinating contribution of the noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, on classical music has been noted. My noble friend Lady Rendell gave a wonderful insight into modern British publishing. She is absolutely right: sales of books are reaching record levels. Spending on books in Britain has increased by more than £500 million since 1993. Britons spend more than £2.6 billion a year on books. The theatre, too, is flourishing. I acknowledge the huge contribution that the noble Lord, Lord Lloyd-Webber, has made to the London theatre. He asked whether the theatre could have the same tax advantages as the film industry. I shall discuss that with my noble friend Lord McKenzie. I am sure that he will be interested to hear what the noble Lord has to say. It is a very important point. The Arts Council has invested some £94.9 million in theatres in 2005–06. It is estimated that the economic impact of UK theatre is £2.6 billion, a very significant sum. My noble friend Lord Smith drew attention to what has happened in regional theatre. I am very grateful to my noble friend Lord Harrison for drawing Vocaleyes to our attention. That is a very important initiative. The theatre’s enduring appeal has made a major contribution to our economy, even during difficult times for the tourist industry. My noble friend Lord Harrison asked whether there were any plans to update the strategy Tomorrow’s Tourism. The DCMS is developing a new strategy for tourism in partnership with the sector. This will address the challenges and opportunities for tourism across the UK, including London2012. My noble friend will be delighted to hear that we hope to publish the new strategy later this year. Creativity lies at the heart of almost all cultural and arts-based activity, and, increasingly, it lies at the centre of successful economic life in an advanced knowledge-based society. Edward de Bono said:"““Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way””." If we know that these creative skills are crucial now, we cannot lose the opportunity to ensure that the next generation has every opportunity to develop them. That is why we are doing so much work in schools. The importance of that point was stressed by my noble friends Lord Smith and Lord Young. Creative partnerships have been hugely successful, operating in 36 areas of the country, and we are providing £151 million to support its work to 2008. It has started more than 4,500 projects, working closely with more than 1,000 schools and involving more than 280,000 young people to date. The noble Baroness, Lady Bonham-Carter, asked about future funding. I am not in a position to answer that, simply because I do not know. I will find out and write to her. The arts can also be a lifeline for those whose lives are in crisis. The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, spoke movingly about rehabilitation in prisons and the need for the arts to operate in that environment. He asked some very searching questions, and I will personally find out the answers. I absolutely take on board the point about government departments working together to fulfil the vision that he has expressed, and I will come back to him on that as soon as possible, if I may. The Government firmly believe that the arts and the wider cultural sector have a unique contribution to make to the flourishing economy, community cohesion and national well-being. Noble Lords’ contributions have underlined that. We have made an unprecedented level of funding available, and the Government recognise the potential of the arts for helping to achieve many of our economic and social goals. Again, I thank all noble Lords for their contributions. I am incredibly sorry that I have not been able to deal with all the points made, but my 20 minutes are up. So, with thanks again to my noble friend Lord Bragg for initiating a debate that has been a highlight in my short time at the House of Lords, I sit down.