Cathedral investment could be profitable

A SMALL Government investment in the upkeep of cathedrals will reap a dramatic reward, the Bishop of Wakefield has said.

Bishop Stephen Platten said spending on cathedrals and the arts helped to boost the “selfesteem” of communities.

“Twelve million people visit our cathedrals every year. In 2004, a report showed that English cathedrals alone brought £150 million into the various local economies,” he said in a Lords debate.

“That would be £186 million at present-day levels. Visitor numbers have increased since then by some 50 per cent, so you can do your own calculations on today’s figures — I think that it is probably about £200 million.

“The benefits do not end there, of course. Cathedral music thrives here in this country as it does nowhere else in the world. Furthermore, speak to so many of our outstanding musicians, conductors, soloists and instrumentalists and you will find that their musical education began in cathedral choirs. With the advent of girls’ choirs, that is now equally true of women.

“There is one more essential byproduct of arts and culture in regeneration. This time it is not about finance and economics but, instead, about the nurturing of our common humanity.

“One serious impact in our area of the death of the coal industry has been a loss of sense of purpose in so many communities. That undermines what I would call our corporate self-esteem.”

Bishop Platten added: “My message to the Government is that even a minimal increase in funding for our cathedrals and their upkeep, for example, will yield a bonus proportionately way beyond what any other investment can offer in these tough times. So, too, with the arts.”

When he arrived in Wakefield a decade ago there had been scepticism about a regeneration of the city including an art gallery. But he said the Hepworth gallery had attracted more than half a million visitors in its first year.

“The Hepworth effectively has placed the moderately-sized city of Wakefield, still recovering from the death of both the woollen industry and coal mining, on the map internationally,” he said.

But he warned that arts organisations were “up against it” financially.

“Spending on the arts and on culture is tiny proportionately to our national spending and budgeting, but the benefits that it brings in regeneration, economic development and in terms of corporate self-esteem exceed what any of us might expect,” he said.