£450m 'culture chasm' adding to regional inequality – report

A £450M “culture chasm” between London and the North of England is adding to a “vicious cycle of regional inequality”, a new report has warned.

- DANIEL HOLLAND

Analysis from IPPR North has found that the capital received arts and culture funding of £57 per person between 2023 and 2025, compared to only £28 per person in the North of England.

The think tank claimed that the North would have received an extra £450m from Arts Council England (ACE) if it was funded at the same rate as London, roughly equivalent to putting on 10 events on the scale of Bradford's City of Culture programme every three years.

Researchers say that, while the funding gap has actually shrunk from £700m between 2018 and 2022, there remained a “clear need to redress historic underfunding and cultural exclusion in regions like the North” and called for power over arts and culture funding to be handed to regional mayors instead.