Thanks for the arts cash, but heritage is just as important to our tourist industry

David Watt appeals for a rethink in budget funding for preserving history

At first glance, December’s draft Scottish Budget for 2018-19 seemed like good news for Scotland’s cultural sector. With many warning of potential cuts in Scottish Government funding, compounded by a significant drop in National Lottery funding and severe cuts to local government culture budgets, the commitment of an additional £6.6 million to support Creative Scotland’s regular funding programme was a welcome surprise.

Leading up to the announcement on the 14 December, Arts & Business Scotland rallied more than 120 cultural organisations and businesses to submit a joint letter to Finance Secretary Derek Mackay, making a passionate case for continued investment in Scotland’s cultural sector.

highlighted a £4.6 billion annual economic contribution from Scotland’s creative industries, supporting around 84,000 jobs. With Scottish tourism worth £11 billion annually, we underlined Visitscotland’s most recent visitor survey, showing that a third of tourists are inspired to visit Scotland by our culture and heritage.

We also pointed out a 2013 Scottish Government study showing significant links between cultural participation and improved health and wellbeing – and widespread evidence of the broader positive societal impact culture brings in areas including education, justice and community cohesion.

We emphasised the importance of closer collaboration between busi- ness and culture with creativity rising up the list of the top ten most important skills for businesses. Given its huge added value and with total spending on culture, tourism and external affairs representing less than 1 per cent of the 2017-18 Scottish budget, we argued that public investment in culture offers outstanding value for money.

So we were pleased to read the headlines of the Cabinet Secretary’s budget announcement on 14 December – and our immediate reaction was suitably positive.

Sadly, on closer investigation, this apparent positive news for one part of the cultural sector now appears much less so for another. In financially challenging times, a multimillion pound increase in core Scot- tish Government funding for Creative Scotland is undoubtedly an important lifeline – for the arts at least. But hidden in the details was far less welcome news for the heritage sector.

Historic Environment Scotland faces a budget cut of £5 million next year. As the budget document itself acknowledges, “a significant portion of the grant-in-aid funding which HES receives is passed on to Scottish communities by way of grant schemes which fund the regeneration of Scotland’s town centres and the repair of historic buildings.”

Set in that context, an 11 per cent cut in funding could have a dramatic negative impact on future investment to safeguard Scotland’s cultural heritage, in turn doing particular damage to Scotland’s £11 billion-awe

year tourism industry. For its part, Arts & Business Scotland has been making concerted efforts to build skills and capacity to enable heritage organisations to identify and secure funding from alternative sources.

Over the past four years, our Resourcing Scotland’s Heritage training programme (led by Arts & Business Scotland in partnership with Archaeology Scotland, Built Environment Scotland, Built Environment Forum Scotland, greenspace Scotland and Museums Galleries Scotland) has trained more than 700 individuals from around 450 heritage organisations throughout the country.

Notwithstanding these efforts, access to core funding through the likes of Historic Environment Scotland remains crucial to the long-term viability of many heritage organisations. Maintaining a vibrant heritage sector also matters, with the latest Scottish Household Survey showing 92 per cent engagement with culture, including a significant rise in the proportion of Scots visiting museums, historic places or archaeological sites over the past five years.

Signatories to our letter registered a joint concern that “any moves to reduce public funding for the arts and heritage sectors in 2018-19 would critically undermine the achievement of the Scottish Government’s overarching purpose and strategic objectives”.

With core funding for heritage via Historic Environment Scotland facing a substantial cut, that concern remains very real. In the time remaining leading up to the budget’s formal adoption, we will continue to make our case as persuasively as we can: Be it in the form of support for the arts or investment in preserving our priceless heritage, public funding for culture in its broadest sense offers outstanding value for money – and therefore deserves to be protected. David Watt is chief executive of Arts & Business Scotland.