Council leader: ‘Arts and culture make life bearable in times like this’
SPECTACULAR: The Museum of the Moon in Hull Minster during the 2018 Freedom Festival. Picture by Tom Arran Commercial Photography
Arts and culture should be protected during the coronavirus crisis because they are “what makes life bearable in times like this”, the leader of Hull City Council has said.
In an impassioned plea for Government support for Hull’s culture and heritage sectors, Councillor Steve Brady also called them “the bedrock of a decent society”, and warned “we ignore them at our peril as a nation”.
But he said the authority would continue doing what it can to support those industries, and “will not leave the cultural sector to fight on its own”.
In a recent move to bolster those working in these fields, the council set aside £200,000 to issue grants to freelance workers and others in the arts, culture and heritage sectors who had been unable to access other emergency funding. It is thought to be the only local authority in the country to deliver such a scheme.
Coun Brady, who has already written to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden in a direct appeal for support, said: “It’s not a huge amount but what it does show is our continued support for the culture sector because the latent talent in the city needs it.
“There was a real buzz about the festivals that were happening and a lot of people were involved; local groups getting their opportunities, and to see all these dreams shattered really in a matter of a few months – we can’t forget them.
“That talent is still there, top quality in what they’ve got to offer, and it needs to be sustained and developed, and these are the things we are saying to the Culture Secretary.”
He added: “We had a huge success with UK City of Culture, we have supported our culture sector throughout this, and now, particularly, where we have got the theatres and halls under real threat and not knowing when they might open, it’s vital we have that support.
“We want the assurances they will support the culture sector because it’s the bedrock of a decent society, and we’ll rue the day that we ignore the sector that actually makes life bearable in times like this. So we can’t afford to lose the enthusiasm and the talent that’s been developed, and we ignore them at our peril as a nation.”
‘CULTURE IS THE BEDROCK OF A DECENT SOCIETY’: City council leader Steve Brady. Picture by Tom Arran Commercial Photography
The leader of the Labour-led authority also warned some venues may be lost forever if they do not get short-term support.
He said: “At the moment we don’t know what’s going to happen with a vaccination, which might solve a lot of the problems to do with the creative industries, but we do know it will be the last one to recover out of all the industries, and it’s the one that brings quality of life to people, so we need that short-term support, otherwise we’ll see theatres and halls and arenas closing their doors for good, and that can’t be good for any society. We need that assurance we’ll get that support.”
Asked how much funding might be needed, Coun Brady said: “We would have to get a calculation of the type of support these cultural organisations will need.”
He said events like the Freedom Festival and the Humber Street Sesh, as well as Hull’s diverse range of venues, were “vital to the future of the cultural sector”.
But he added: “If we have only a small number of people who can go in these venues it makes it really difficult financially for it to stack up. These shows and venues, the cultural sector – at the end of the day they actually drive the economy, so lose that and I think the country’s got real problems.
“I don’t think it’s been at the top of the Government’s priorities because of the pressure they have with other things, and that’s understandable, but now there’s some normality coming back we need to support that or it’s lost.
“Yes, it will take more than the Government have put in at the present time but they’ve got to be reasonable and a lot of these organisations will need to have the confidence to get the venues open more widely than they are at the present time. I think most of the arenas around the country; if they can’t really fill these places near capacity then they are going to really struggle in the short-term.
“However, we are still as committed as we always have been towards the creative and cultural sector and we are going to honour our commitments, even though the council has taken a real financial hit during the crisis. We will not leave the cultural sector to fight on its own and allow people to fall behind. The council will do everything in its power to keep the cultural sector alive in Hull.”
Coun Brady is also urging the Government to honour its pledge to reimburse local authorities for the cost of the pandemic, even though he said this had “changed halfway through”. The city council estimates the crisis to have cost it about £55m so far, yet it has only received between £20m and £21m in Government support.
‘TAKEN A BIG HIT’: The Covid-19 crisis has cost the city council about £55m so far. Picture by Tom Arran Commercial Photography
He said: “From the off the Government said quite clearly we will work with you and we are telling you to spend money for the assistance of homeless people having to have separate facilities, and they said clearly all of these costs you build up we’ll fully fund.
“They said if you work with us and make sure we’ve got the cohesion across the communities for assistance, the distribution of food and the grants system to business and other organisations we work with, keep a calculation of the cost and we will fully reimburse you.
“Then it changed halfway through and they said it was a shared hit. There was a particular meeting, about three or four months in, probably about May time, when it suddenly changed and this was a shared burden. It was probably because of the loss the Government was feeling with the furlough scheme.”
As well as the cost of responding to the crisis, the city council, like other authorities, has lost many of the income streams it would normally rely on, including business rates, council tax payments, car parking, and spending at leisure centres and other venues.
The background to that is a loss of about 60 per cent of Government funding – about £135m a year - since the current administration took control of the council in 2010.
The council has delivered a balanced budget every year since 2015, Coun Brady said. It has built its reserves up to about £38m, but it cannot simply empty its coffers as it is required to have healthy reserves.
Coun Brady said: “What we have said to Government is we accept some of these reserves could be used but not a great deal of it because the reserves are for a one-off; they are not to cover continued deficits in the costs of running a council.
“We are not currently ringing any alarm bells but we are saying we have kept good accounts, we have delivered on maintaining our services and we have managed a balanced budget, and we are at a stage where this sort of hit to local authorities – in particular the poorer ones like Hull which are more reliant on Government grants because of the low tax base generated by A and B band properties – will need to be addressed.
“They have said they recognise there needs to be a levelling up between the North and the South, and if they don’t fund these deficits caused by the pandemic then very quickly any promises about levelling up will disappear very quickly.”
Coun Brady said he hoped when the coronavirus bill is settled the Government would expect those councils which are historically richer in terms of their cash reserves “would have a greater burden to bear than authorities like Hull and many others in the North”.
He said the council was working “very closely” with the Government and regularly providing up to date information about the financial impact the crisis.
He added: “We just need to know and we need Government to tell us with certainty what we are going to get over the next three years, and whether they will fund the deficit that comes out of this crisis. If they don’t do that then local government will be crippled in terms of being able to respond to emergencies such as this in the future.”