Category: Culture

The comments made by Jo Stevens, the Shadow Culture Secretary, on 24 September 2020.

Labour shares the Committee’s concerns about the perilous state of the cultural sector – a sector that has made every effort to adapt and find new ways of working.

The snail’s pace of processing applications for funding is not good enough and as we’ve consistently said the Chancellor needs to provide targeted support for struggling sectors.

Culture is a key part of our national identity as well as an economic success story. Although it is temporarily unable to make any money during the pandemic, it could boom again with the right support at the right time.

Text of the comments made by Jo Stevens, the Shadow Culture Secretary, on 29 July 2020.

While our world-beating creative industries have been clear about the crisis that is overwhelming them, the Government’s focus has been on creating commissions and taskforces rather than getting money to where it’s urgently needed.

Theatres, music venues and other organisations have been desperately waiting for nearly four weeks to hear if they are eligible to apply for the £1.57bn but this announcement still leaves many in the dark.

It’s welcome that the Government has finally taken steps to address the issue of insurance to help get TV and film production up and running, but there are still questions about the detail.

The missing piece in the jigsaw remains freelancers – some of whom have not had a penny from the Government. We’re four months on from the start of the crisis, we need to know when this money will actually get to the frontline.