The future literacy of Wales ‘endangered by funding cuts’

Matin Shipton

Welsh publishers have warned that the future literacy of the nation will be in peril unless damaging cuts that have already caused immense damage to their industry are rolled back.

With the Welsh Government’s Draft Budget for 2025-26 being published on Tuesday December 10, publishers in Wales are nervous about what may be in store for them – as well as the potentially dire consequences for our society.

Former Archdruid of Wales Myrddin ap Dafydd founded the publishing company Gwasg Carreg Gwalch in his home town of Llanrwst in 1980. It specialises in books in the Welsh language, but also publishes books in English of Welsh interest.

‘Crisis’

He said: “The industry has been in crisis since austerity cuts began in 2010, but we’re now in a very difficult situation. In April this year we had a 25% cut in our funding, which for us meant cutting the books we publish by 25% and cutting back 4.5 jobs.

“I know that the Welsh Government talks about the need to make tough choices and says its emphasis has to be on protecting health and education, but there is a very clear case to be made that as publishers we contribute greatly to the literacy of the nation.

“We need to provide the children of Wales with the opportunity to read books from an early age, when they are in primary school. We know from the international PISA results that Wales is lagging behind the rest of the UK and Europe in terms of literacy – a shocking fact when one considers that 250 years ago Wales was renowned as one of the most literate countries.

“From a Welsh language perspective too, it is vital that if the ambition to have a million Welsh speakers by 2050 is to be realised, much more needs to be done to improve children’s ability to read Welsh. And there’s no better way of doing that than publishing more books in Welsh.

“Without extra funding the future literacy of the nation will be at risk.”

‘Unprecedented challenges’

Richard Tunnicliffe runs Rily Books with his wife Lynda. He said: “Our family company is one of the biggest Welsh language publishers of children’s books and it – and all the other publishers – are facing some unprecedented challenges.

“The cost-of-living crisis over the last few years combined with the poor economy and cuts in direct support have had a huge impact. With the cuts to school and library budgets – which were both significant customers for publishers – we have all effectively been faced with three rounds of cuts; and we have just been threatened with more! Because of this, there has been lobbying over the last month or so by a huge number of people – publishers, translators, authors, editors and people just concerned about the ongoing impact of this on the Welsh language publishers and what this continued austerity means for the future of the language.

“Since 2010, we have seen a reduction in direct support of almost half in real terms. And that’s before one takes account of the impact of the cuts to schools and libraries. Combined with rising costs, it has been a perfect storm and it is perhaps no surprise that some publishers have ceased publishing. For an industry that is critical for the future of the Welsh language and the government’s million speaker goals, it is surprising that such a vital partner is being allowed to wither.

“I know many Senedd Members have been contacted about this as it is a big concern to many people; though we have yet to hear much about it from the Government. Their talk has all been about “an end to austerity” and “fixing the foundations” but we haven’t seen that delivered in practice yet. With the Welsh Government Budget being announced on December 10, this will be a key moment for that to be demonstrated.”

‘Relentless cuts’

Penny Thomas runs Firefly Books, an award-winning publishing company that produces children’s books. She said: “We’re a small business that has been recognised for the excellence of the books we produce, but the relentless cuts have put enormous pressure on us to the point where unless things improve I can’t see us carrying on, which would be a desperate shame.

“This year we had to make the painful decision of making one of our colleagues redundant – something we were immensely sad to do. We very much see our role as helping to educate and make literate the children of Wales – that’s our mission, and we want to continue doing it.

“Our business has small profit margins, and while most of our revenue is commercial, the minority of funding we get from the Books Council is very important to us.”

‘Vital work’

The publishers have been supported in their campaign by Caerphilly Labour MS Hefin David, who said: “Richard Tunnicliffe is one of my constituents and he has helped me to understand the vital work done by Welsh publishers and the important role they perform from an educational point of view.

“I agree that they should receive more funding via the Books Council of Wales, but from what I have learnt there is also a supply chain problem that needs to be addressed.

“Richard and other publishers hold many copies of books in warehouses that should be bought out of school budgets and made available to children. Currently schools are saying that they don’t have the money in their budgets to be able to buy books. [Around 45% of primary schools in Wales spend less than £500 a year on books]. This is surely something that could be fixed at relatively little cost, giving children the opportunity to hold a book in their hands and develop a love of reading that will last a lifetime.”

In October 2023 an evaluation report written for the Books Council of Wales about the impact of a programme called Schools Love Reading / Caru Darllen Ysgolion concluded that it had a greater impact on both the more underprivileged in our community and the children who need a literacy boost the most.

Recently the Scottish Government published its draft Budget which showed an increase in spending on the culture sector of £34m. Welsh publishers are hoping to get similarly good news.