Creative Scotland set to see £7m cut in funding from Scottish Government

Creative Scotland’s Grant in Aid budget for 2023/24 is set to decrease by around £7m, from £63m in 2022/23, following the Scottish Government’s draft budget announcement. 

The reduction of more than 10% was described by Creative Scotland as “extremely disappointing”, while Marion Sinclair, chief executive of Publishing Scotland, described it as "a blow".

Creative Scotland said it “acknowledge[s] the challenging financial environment affecting all parts of public life and the difficult decisions the Scottish Government is making”. 

But the organisation added: “We welcome the fact that the proposed budget includes stable funding for screen, youth arts and other community initiatives. However, the reduction in Grant in Aid impacts most significantly on our ability to maintain funding at standstill levels for the portfolio of 120 Regularly Funded Organisations.” 

Regularly Funded Organisations include the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) and Scottish Book Trust. While individual publishers are not supported through the Regular Funding Network, support for the industry is embedded in the network via Publishing Scotland, which is an RFO. 

In November Creative Scotland said it was “not able to confidently roll out a new Multi-Year funding approach" when it didn’t have "sufficient clarity or confidence" in its future budgets.

It said this was due to Scotland’s culture and creative sector “facing significant challenges brought on by long-term budget pressures, increased operating costs, slow post-Covid recovery and falling income” alongside continued “uncertainties” around Creative Scotland’s budgets from the Scottish Government for “this year, next year and beyond, with the realistic prospect of serious budget reductions”.   

Reacting to the news, Publishing Scotland c.e.o. Marion Sinclair told The Bookseller: "We were prepared for a tough outcome in the budget, but I think we’re pretty dismayed at the 10% cut."

She said RFOs like Publishing Scotland typically receive three years of funding, but this has been rolled over for the past two years, and kept at the same level. She said this represents a 10% cut in real terms because of inflation, so a further 10% cut to Creative Scotland is "quite a worry".

"Independent publishing has certainly been impacted, so this coming on the back of two years of Covid and one year of cost of living [...] I think it will be a bit of a blow for the independent publishing sector and for writers as well."

Ann Landmann, festival director for CYMERA: Scotland’s Festival of Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writing, has previously applied for funding from Creative Scotland via its Open Fund. She said: "We have been talking about the reduction in funding for the past six months, we knew it was coming. It doesn’t mean that we’re not afraid. It doesn’t mean that we’re prepared. It means that we are seriously thinking about what we can do for next year."

She added: "I know a lot of book festivals are thinking about what can we scale back on. We’ve seen it already, what people are scaling back on. But there will be decisions beyond the digital, there will be decisions about how many events, how many days, there will be decisions on aspects of programming that they can’t do because they don’t have the money for it."