Creative Scotland ‘disappointed’ by Scottish Government funding cuts

Creative Scotland has said it is “disappointed” by the decision from the Scottish Government to cut its funding by more than 10%.

The organisation’s board met yesterday (Monday) to discuss the implications of the funding cuts.

Creative Scotland’s anger follows the Scottish Government’s 2023-24 budget announcement last week that included cuts worth almost £7m ($8.5m/€8m) to the public body.

In a statement, Creative Scotland said: “Whilst the board fully appreciates the challenging context in which the Scottish Government has reached its decision, and the pressures that are being felt by everyone across all parts of society, we are extremely disappointed by the settlement.

“It comes at a time of significant pressures for cultural organisations due to the impact of the pandemic, rising inflation, falling income and spiralling operating costs, when the value of culture and creativity to people’s lives has never been more important.”

Creative Scotland receives more than a third of its income from The National Lottery as one of the 12 cultural, sport and heritage distributors for good causes.

The organisation added that to address the cut in funding, Creative Scotland would utilise a proportion of its National Lottery reserves to maintain funding for Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) at 2022-23 levels.

“National Lottery reserves are finite and therefore can only be a time-limited solution to address Scottish Government budget reductions in 2023-24. As the Scottish Government budget does not give any indication of funding for 2024-25 and beyond, we cannot confirm RFO funding levels for 2024-25,” added the statement.

The organisation added that if the Scottish Government’s cuts lasted beyond 2023-24, then it would have to pass these costs on to the sector.