...after Creative & Cultural Skills Chairman attends Downing Street Summit
Creative & Cultural Skills has warmly welcomed this week's pre-budget report and public
spending review which provides for increased investment in skills and maintains the level of public
spending in the arts.
The Chancellor's announcements will see DIUS , the new Department for Innovation,
Universities and Skills, increase spending on Higher Education and adult skills by an average of
2.0 per cent a year in real terms, rising from £14.2 billion in 2007-08 to £16.4 billion in
2010-11. Meanwhile Arts Council England will see its funding rise in line with inflation over the
next three years, despite earlier fears that arts funding could face a real terms cut.
" In responding to the Leitch Review of Skills, the government has set itself some bold
targets for raising skills in the workforce, says Tom Bewick, Chief Executive of Creative &
Cultural Skills . This settlement provides the means for making progress towards those aims.
Responding to the needs of our sector, Creative & Cultural Skills has developed an innovative
range of projects including the new Creative Apprenticeship and forthcoming Creative Choices
careers information service . We look forward to developing these in partnership with Skills
Minister David Lammy MP and his department."
The Pre-Budget report followed a gathering of senior arts leaders chaired by the Prime
Minister at Downing Street and attended by Tony Hall CBE, Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House
and Chair of Creative & Cultural Skills. Writing in The Guardian this week he applauded the
financial settlement for the arts, saying it signaled that investment in culture was no longer
regarded as a luxury item:
"The debate has shifted seismically. No one now seems to challenge the fact that the arts and
culture are central to the sort of country we aspire to be. We are no longer a "nice to have" but a
vital part of a civilised society and an energetic economy. And stability of funding, we've all
been arguing, is one of the necessary conditions. The fact that the chancellor said he was
guaranteeing an inflationary increase for the arts, means that we can build on that investment to
bring in even more money."
The sector served by Creative & Cultural Skills, including advertising, craft, design,
heritage, music and the arts accounts for more than 550,000 jobs and contributes more than £23.5
billion per annum to the UK economy .
Further details
For further detials contact Miles Fletcher, Director of Communications at Creative &
Cultural Skills by telephone on 0207 015 1812.
Welcome for Pre-Budget Report