Jane Hutt MS, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip
I am pleased to announce today the Welsh Government is providing additional revenue funding of £5m to Wales’ culture and sport arm’s length bodies and Cadw.
The Welsh Government has listened to concerns regarding the financial pressures facing our cultural and sporting institutions. The funding being announced today follows on from the additional £2m revenue repurposed earlier this year to mitigate the impact of job losses at Amgueddfa Cymru, the National Library of Wales, the Arts Council of Wales and the wider arts sector, and the £3.7m capital funding package announced in July to protect and preserve Wales’ national treasures.
The additional £5m is drawn from our reserves and will help to strengthen the financial stability of our culture and sport arm’s length bodies. These organisations are key in delivering several Programme for Government commitments and play a fundamental role in promoting mental and physical health and well-being and in bringing communities together.
The additional funding to Amgueddfa Cymru (£940k), the National Library of Wales (£725k) and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (£90k)
will support these bodies to invest in some of the key services they provide the people of Wales.
The additional funding of £1.5m to the Arts Council of Wales will be used to provide support to arts organisations, focusing on organisational resilience.
The additional funding of £1m to Sport Wales and its partners will also support the future resilience of these sporting organisations.
The additional funding of £745k will allow Cadw to maintain financial sustainability and fulfil statutory obligations during the current financial year as well as helping it to invest in commercial activities to generate income.
We fully recognise this is a difficult financial time for our arm’s length arts and sports organisations as well as Cadw. Although today’s announcement will not reverse the full impact of the difficult decisions we have had to make to protect frontline services, it will help support the financial stability and strengthen the resilience of these bodies.
The additional revenue funding will be provided in 2024-25 only and is not recurrent in nature.
This statement is being issued during recess in order to keep members informed. Should members wish me to make a further statement or to answer questions on this when the Senedd returns I would be happy to do so.