Paisley given £10m funding boost for UK City of Culture bid

The Scottish Government has committed £10 million to Paisley’s bid to become the UK’S next culture capital.

The Renfrewshire town is one of five contenders vying for the title in 2021, which is due to be announced by the UK government in December.

Ministers have pledged £7m in direct funding from the government and £3m through its agencies for Paisley’s bid.

Renfrewshire Council, which is spearheading the bid, has pledged a further £8.7m from its own budget. If successful, Paisley would secure a further £3m from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Paisley has predicted an economic boost of £172m and the creation of 4,700 jobs over a ten-year period if its bid is successful.

Paisley is competing against Coventry, Stoke, Sunderland and Swansea for the right to succeed Hull, which is basking in the limelight of the title this year.

Scottish culture secretary Fiona Hyslop revealed the backing for Paisley’s bid during a cultural summit in the town, which is due to lodge its bid at the end of this month.

She said: “I’m very pleased to confirm the Scottish Government’s support for Paisley 2021’s bid as the UK City of Culture.

“It’s an exciting prospect which fits in well with the government’s ambitions as we recognise the significant contribution Paisley makes to Scotland’s rich cultural life and the local and national boost this would bring.

“The Scottish Government is including its contribution to the Paisley bid within its spending review plans, as will the national agencies.”

Council leader Iain Nicolson, chair of the Paisley 2021 board, said: “There has never been a Scottish winner of the competition but we would love to be the first.

“The pledge supports our view that a successful bid for Paisley will produce benefits that will be felt across the whole country in terms of visitor numbers and economic impact and as a showcase of cultural excellence.”

Meanwhile the Scottish Government has revealed that the arts are to be given a new strategic role in positioning Scotland as an “open and welcoming” country in future.

Culture will become a “key” focus along with education, the economy and the environment to help “articulate” a vision of a democratic, fair, equal, innovative and green society, Ms Hyslop told the gathering of arts leaders at the University of the West of Scotland.

She said the new strategy for the sector would “articulate how we want to see ourselves and how we want others to see us culturally in a post-brexit world”.

Ms Hyslop said the government wanted to position culture as “strategically important and central to Scotland’s future” and position Scotland as a “cultural leader”.