Welsh Government to give additional £5 million to support culture and sport bodies

The Welsh Government is set to announce it is is providing a further £5 million to support Wales’ culture and sport arm’s length bodies and Cadw.

Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip Jane Hutt will make the announcement today (5 September) on a visit to the National Library of Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales in Aberystwyth, both amongst the organisations benefiting from the funding.

The Cabinet Secretary says the Welsh Government has listened to concerns regarding the financial pressures facing cultural and sporting institutions and acted to help them mitigate against the difficulties they face.

The additional £5m will come from Welsh Government reserves.

The National Library will receive £725,000 and the Royal Commission is to benefit from £90,000. In addition, £1.5m will go to the Arts Council of Wales which will include providing support to arts organisations focusing on organisational resilience, Sport Wales will receive £1m, while Amgueddfa Cymru is to benefit from £940,000.

Funding of £745,000 will also allow Cadw to maintain financial sustainability.

The support package is in addition to the £3.2m capital funding announced in July for repairs to be carried out to both National Museum Cardiff and the National Library of Wales.

‘Key’

Culture Secretary, Jane Hutt said: “These organisations are key in delivering a number of our Programme for Government commitments and play a fundamental role in promoting good mental wellbeing and physical health and bringing communities together. There is no doubt of the positive impact they have on people throughout Wales.

“We fully recognise this is a difficult financial time for our arm’s length arts and sports organisations as well as Cadw, and we know this funding won’t address all the issues these organisations are facing. However, this support will offer some further financial stability and strengthen the resilience of these bodies.”

Chief Executive of the National Library of Wales, Rhodri Llwyd Morgan said: “We are thankful that the Welsh Government continue to show their support for the National Library of Wales. It is important to ensure that staff in mid Wales have fair terms of employment, and the contribution towards the deficit in the Pension Scheme will help to protect jobs.

“We are also grateful that there is recognition of the challenges that arise from maintaining a national digital collection, especially following the recent cyber-attack on the British Library. The £225,000 will go towards infrastructure that protects the digital collections in the long term and ensures access to them for future generations.”

Amgueddfa Cymru Chief Executive, Jane Richardson added: “We are very grateful for the additional funding from Welsh Government. Organisations within the culture and heritage sector are currently working within an extremely challenging financial environment. This financial support will enable us to invest in focussed programmes of work that will help lay a foundation for creating a sustainable future for Amgueddfa Cymru.”

Financial pressures

Arts Council Wales Chief Executive, Dafydd Rhys said: “We are pleased that the Government has recognised the continuing financial pressures that the sector is facing, and this additional support will give us the opportunity to assist many organisations that are struggling under the current economic climate. This news will be very well received.”

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Catling said: “The additional sum of £90,000 that the Cabinet Secretary is making available to the Royal Commission will allow us to digitise our most frequently used archives and make them available to users online. It will also help support our busy enquiries service, for which we are very grateful.”

Sport Wales Chief Executive, Brian Davies said: “I am very grateful to Government for listening to us about the pressures budget cuts have placed on the sector. While it remains a challenging time, we are still focussed on creating opportunities for everyone in Wales to enjoy being active and very much welcome confirmation of this additional in-year funding. We will allocate it to those partners that received a budget cut earlier this year and it will help them deal with some of the challenges they are facing.”