Culture is key to levelling up the north, MPs say

Supporting the north of England's music, art, film and culture - and attracting more national names - can play a critical role in "levelling up" after the pandemic, a new report says.

There is "a clear and strategic case for investment in culture in the north", according to the report, compiled by a cross-party group of MPs.

Comparing the "vast seam" of creativity in the north to the importance of coal in the past, it suggested culture was "probably the quickest and most under-used lever for levelling up today".

It cited the Angel of the North in Gateshead, Manchester's music scene and Yorkshire's strength in film and TV as success stories that help build the identities and economies of those places.

However, a "Billy Elliot effect" still sometimes means creative careers are seen as "a form of failure or a waste of education", according to the report, published by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Northern Culture and backed by MPs and mayors across the region.

It said culture "can meaningfully contribute not only to our economic recovery, but to the wellbeing agenda and our national identity in the years ahead".

More opportunities for training and education, more funding power for local leaders, and promoting a "Brand North" were among the recommendations.

It also said there should be incentives for national venues and organisations to relocate out of London or establish branches in the north, as Channel 4 has recently done and the British Library is doing in Leeds.

"The levelling up agenda can encourage national institutions and organisations old and new to relocate or establish new hub sites in the north; [and] high street and heritage sites can be repurposed," the Case for Culture report said.

"Social and civic cohesion can be enabled through culture to mitigate the impacts of the Covid mental health crisis; [and] educational catch-up can be facilitated through a new focus on creative curriculum, apprenticeships and life-long learning."

The government's levelling up agenda "has to be about improving how people feel about the places where they live, with culture being central to this", Labour MP and Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis said at the report's launch.

"The report built upon this principle, affirming that culture is the quickest and most underused lever for levelling up today," he continued. "We all as a collective need to be shouting this from the rooftops and leading by example."

The House of Commons culture select committee is also currently conducting an inquiry into the role of culture in levelling up.

Its chair, Conservative MP Julian Knight, said: "For too long, the predominance of our cultural spend has been centred on London and the south-east, and we have not been making enough of the rich seam of talent that we have north of the Watford Gap."

Arts minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay told the report's authors that they had "a receptive audience here at DCMS [the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport]".

"We're all here at DCMS determined to make sure that everybody, wherever they're from, has the opportunity to enjoy the transformative power of culture," he said.

The government is due to publish its plans for levelling up in a white paper shortly. It has allocated the first £1.7bn of its levelling up fund, of which a quarter - £429m - is going towards culture, according to the Arts Professional website.