Northern Powerhouse & Cultural Policy

Dr Ben Walmsley School of Performance and Cultural Industries (University of Leeds)

Edge Hill University, 11th November 2015 Dr Ben Walmsley School of Performance and Cultural Industries  The Northern Powerhouse was first introduced in June 2014 by , in a speech in Manchester, where he argued that the lack of economic and physical connections between the cities/city regions of the North of England was holding back their growth: “the whole is less than the sum of its parts…so the powerhouse of London dominates more and more.”  Osborne describes the Northern Powerhouse as “not one city, but a collection of northern cities – sufficiently close to each other that combined they can take on the world.” (Centre for Cities, 2014)  Osborne’s pet plan is designed to support a call from five core northern cities (Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield & Liverpool) for a £15bn investment over five years in science, transport and infrastructure. Hull came late to the party.  Osborne recently pledged £78M for , a brand new cultural centre on the old site that will provide a permanent home for the biannual Manchester International Festival. The budget for the 2,200-seater theatre has now ballooned to £110M  ACE Executive Director of Arts & Culture Simon Mellor is project director …  And now Liverpool wants in on the act! Building the creative Northern Powerhouse

Written by Dr Abigail Gilmore, Senior Lecturer in Arts Management and Cultural Policy, Institute for Cultural Practices, . (cities@manchester, 2015)  Maria Balshaw’s 10 mins. with George  Nisbett & Walmsley (forthcoming): – “What shall we do for Neil?”  The Northern Powerhouse is a good example of what Belfiore (2009, p.343) refers to as “the prevalence of bullshitting in the contemporary public sphere”.  Belfiore goes on to argue that many of the key actors in the cultural policy debate are “indifferent to how things really are” and cultivate vested interests.

 The facts and figures: . In 2012/13 taxpayers and Lottery players provided a benefit of £86.41 php in London, compared to £8.48 php in the rest of England – under 10% of London levels (Stark et al., 2013).  The controversy surrounding historical imbalances in regional arts funding in England recently led to a parliamentary inquiry, which determined that: . London receives a share of arts funding which is “out of all proportion to its population” and this “clear funding imbalance […] must be urgently rectified”.  ACE reports that in 2009/10, local authorities invested £102m in their regularly funded arts organisations.  Central government funding to local authorities was cut by 28% between 2011-15. In the past few years, some councils have imposed 100% cuts on their arts budgets, which means that 13 local authorities, including Selby and Wigan, now allocate no funding whatsoever to culture and heritage.  Shadow Minister for Culture Helen Goodman MP pointed out last May that the most deprived of England’s local authority areas have cut the arts, libraries and heritage by 22%.  A future of cuts …  It’s a bribe  It’s all about buildings  It’s all about cities  It’s all about George  …and Neil … and Maria  It’s not sustainable  It encourages vanity projects  It’s policy-making on the hoof  It’s policy bullshit!

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