Prof. Katy Shaw (pictured) is Director of the UKRI/AHRC Creative Communities programme and Professor of writing and publishing at Northumbria University. This is a transcript of her remarks at the CIC Place Forum held on 26 September 2024.
I am the director of the AHRC Creative Communities Programme which is looking at the role of culture in different spatial contexts (national, regional, devolved) and the potential of cross-sector collaborations in helping us forge a more equitable and sustainable ecosystem for culture and the creative industries in all four nations of the UK.
Today I will be talking about culture in the context of devolution, specifically English devolution and the advent of some of those new Mayoral Combined Authorities.
Devolution means the handing down of power, which tells us a lot about the power relations between the devolved nations, regions and Westminster. In recent years, we have seen a shift in power to the English regions through Mayoral Combined Authorities of which there are currently 12 in the UK. Each has its own devolution agreement with government on budgets and powers and are levelled one to four (least to most power). Level 4 are Trailblazer Deals which will receive larger pots of money over time. A few Combined Authorities also have single settlements where they access a single pot of money as opposed to long-term funding settlements.
But what does devolution mean for culture?
It means devolved budgets, strategy and policy.
For culture and creativity, the two most mature areas are the West Midlands (WMCA) and Greater Manchester (GMCA) who recently announced their intention to complete the ‘map of devolution’ by the end of their current term. This was a recommendation of the Gordon Brown Future of the Union review which I sat on.
So what might change look like? Several mayors are using part of their culture budget for new interventions or infrastructure, whilst others are levering that investment and match funding through working with universities.
In the North East, Northumbria University has a range of strategic cultural partnerships with organisations like the Baltic Gallery, New Writing North and the BFI to explore skills needs, gaps and ways to grow a more employer-led academic portfolio.
We are also seeing developments like the Cultural Corridor which is a Royal Society of Art and Arts Council England development for better connecting the Combined Authority areas. Currently, the concept of the corridor runs from Liverpool to Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, and is a way of enhancing the capacity and appeal to foreign investment.
So how can we encourage more pan-Combined Authority working?
This is the current focus of the Creative Communities Programme. We are about to launch a series of podcasts, case studies and policy papers looking at the role of culture in devolution across the four nations and making some specific asks to government.
So what policy changes then?
The creative industries can be a catalyst for growth and therefore Local Growth Plans are key.
The future of the arms-length-bodies (ALBs) is also up for grabs when it comes to devolution. In the North East, we are working closely with Arts Council England and Historic England to pilot ALBs working closer to the ground and what that means for staff, capacity, skills and funding awards too.
Overall, it means we are going to see policy flipping. Traditionally, we had to run after policy that had been given down to us from the centre, but devolution allows us to make our own best practice and find our own policy which, if successful, can be scaled up and passed back to the centre.
We are also hopefully about to see a shift in that power imbalance which incentivises co-creation.
Image: Northumbria University
