Our precious heritage and culture must be protected
OUR COUNTRY is in the grip of a crisis which has so many strands it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the Covid challenge.
There are obvious national priorities in controlling infection, maintaining the NHS, educating our children, and getting people and businesses through the economic turmoil.
But, as we slowly come out of the pandemic, we cannot afford to lose sight of who we are as a country. Just as our history, countryside and culture helped us recover as a nation after the Second World War, so it can help us recover now.
The loss of access to our culture and heritage is one of the biggest threats to our national well-being that could come out of this crisis.
When was the last time you were able to go to the Media Museum in Bradford, or visit Fountains Abbey or the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, or go to a show at the Playhouse or Crucible, or go for a walk on the moors with a friend?
All these things are part of who we are as a nation or as a county, and all are things that we take for granted until they are gone. There is little doubt that we will all be poorer financially for a while and it will be tough.
But the little things like a trip to a museum can get us through and keep us together and give us the resilience to persevere. In what may be hard times economically, the state must provide something to show us that we are human and that there is more to life than just drudge or a dole queue.
Yorkshire has a rich tapestry of historical, cultural and natural heritage, supported through national institutions, that have all have been hit badly by the necessary response to coronavirus.
Thousands of workers we represent in Prospect have been furloughed, with museums, theatres and National Trust properties closed. Museums and galleries are already working with unions like mine to ensure a safe return to work.
But, even after reopening, many will face a difficult financial future. Visitor numbers will have to remain strictly limited and that’s before you take the likely reduction in tourism into account.
The National Trust has already indicated that it may have to start making people redundant meaning some properties will remain closed, and if they stay closed for a prolonged time it becomes ever harder to reopen them.
Heritage is an important economic contributor to Yorkshire, contributing directly more than £950m to the regional economy, and supporting just over £2bn of economic activity in total.
Heritage supports a total of 41,000 jobs in Yorkshire and the Humber, including 18,000 direct jobs.
Heritage-related overnight tourist spending here grew 17 per cent between 2013 and 2018, to hit just under £200m. The region also saw the fastest growth of any English region in heritage-related day tourist spending between 2013 and 2018, increasing 42 per cent to £415m.
One key challenge is going to be the cost-effectiveness of reopening when visitor numbers, and especially foreign visitors, will be heavily reduced.
At Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport-funded national museums, like the National Railway Museum in York, 48 per cent of all visitors were from overseas last year.
The assumption has to be that numbers will be heavily impacted for some time, and that’s a huge hit to very fragile operating margins. So, reopening would have to be linked to substantial cash support, otherwise employers may argue it is cheaper to keep the doors closed and staff on furlough.
All of this feeds into my worry that some of these important cultural and historical landmarks, and attractions, could be closed for good unless the Government steps up with vital funding.
This is where the last decade of central government policy adds to my fear for the future. Central budgets have been cut to the bone.
Natural England, which is responsible for protecting and maintaining our natural heritage, is already facing real capacity problems due to cuts and this is the case across the board.
Yorkshire’s beauty and diversity is another huge part of its attraction – funding the agencies that look after that beauty and diversity is essential.
Just last month Prospect members in Natural England were helping control wildfires on Hatfield Moor but, because of funding cuts, it is harder and harder to provide people for this kind of work.
If the Government decides the way out of the current economic crisis is the same as the way out of the 2008 financial crisis, namely by cutting budgets, then we are in serious trouble.
Without proper financial support, it will be impossible for us to maintain the huge contribution that heritage makes to the country.
Access to our country’s heritage is essential. It grounds us, and it tells us who we are. It is far too precious to lose.
The loss of access to our culture and heritage is one of the biggest threats to our national well-being that could come out of this crisis.