United Kingdom. Despite the return of plowing, the cultural sector remains the poor parent of the Labor government. Over the next three years in England, DCMS operating expenses (the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport) will drop by 1.4 % over the entire period from 2025-26 to 2029-30 against an increase of 2.3 % for all ministries. In Great Britain, the budgetary year goes from April 1 to March 3 of the following year. This includes a 1.2 % drop in operating expenses and a 2.8 % reduction in investment spending.
The central administration budget will be reduced by 15 % by 2030. DCMS is indeed committed to achieving at least 5 % saving and efficiency gains by the 2026-27 financial year, in particular by reducing the housing stock. The government also chooses to favor certain sectors such as youth, sports and creative industries (cinema, fashion, etc.). Rachel Reeves, the Minister of Finance, announced 2.9 billion pounds (3.4 billion euros) throughout the period for funding intended for the Arts Council England as well as to national museums. But the players in the sector are waiting to know the details of the budgetary envelopes and do not hide their concerns in the face of a financial uncertainty which dates from several years.
Expenses devoted to museums, heritage, libraries and arts overall follow the changes in the ministry’s total expenditure. The drop in the 2023-2024 budget was amortized due to the coronation expenses of Charles III and Eurovision in Liverpool.
Like all other ministries, culture was struck by the austerity regime imposed by the Conservatives in 2010. A certain period of stability was observed between 2015 and 2018 (see graph), with a modest evolution of forecast budgets, oscillating between 6.8 and 7.7 billion pounds (7.9 and 9 billion euros), knowing that the BBC absorbs half this budget. Support programs during the COVID led to a significant increase in budgets, to which was added to the expansion of the ministry’s responsibilities to digital. But if a peak is observed in 2020-21, a post-Cavid adjustment led to a continuous drop in cultural budgets by the various conservative governments.
In nominal value, the forecast budget of 2024-25 has thus almost returned to the pre-Cavid level, with a total of 7.8 billion pounds (9.2 billion euros). The real expenses, corrected for inflation, followed the same trend.
The DCMS budget especially finances the sector in England. The other three nations such as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have specific budgets but in clearly lower proportions than England. Under a legislative mechanism called “Barnett formula”, if the government increases the budget of the DCMS, it must donate a sum proportional to these budgetary variations to the three other decentralized governments. But nothing obliges them to devote these additional funds to culture in particular.
© The Arts Journal2025
