Scottish Government confirms £89m for Creative Scotland's draft Grant-in-Aid budget

Creative Scotland has praised the Scottish Government’s draft Budget with significant uplift in proposed budgets for culture and for Creative Scotland in 2025-26, following the release of more detailed plans.   

The board of Creative Scotland met on Monday (16th December) to discuss this draft budget further after initially welcoming the Budget announced on 4th December.

With further details now provided by the Scottish Government, it has been confirmed that Creative Scotland’s draft Grant-in-Aid budget from the Scottish Government in 2025-26 is £89m, up from £66.5m in the previous year. Included in this is an additional £20m, specifically for use in supporting the Multi-Year Funding programme, £3m extra for EXPO festival support, an additional £2m for Screen Scotland’s Production Growth Fund, £0.3m more for the Youth Music Initiative (YMI) and £4m for the Culture Collective Initiative.   

Creative Scotland said: “This budget, coupled with the Scottish Government’s aim to provide a further additional £20m for Multi-Year Funding in 2026-27, as set out in the Cabinet Secretary’s recent letter to the Culture Committee, means that we will have £54m for the Multi-Year Funding programme funding in 2025/26, and £74m in 2026/27.” 

The board of Creative Scotland will meet again in January to approve the final set of recommendations for the Multi-Year Funding programme and that all applicants will be informed of the outcome on 30 January.   

Iain Munro, Creative Scotland chief executive, said:  “The very positive outcome for Culture, and for Creative Scotland, as set out in the Scottish Government’s draft budget announcement, means that we can now move forward with confidence in concluding the Multi-Year Funding application process. The additional funding to be provided for this programme both next financial year and, significantly, in the year to follow, is very welcome and I am pleased we can now commit to announcing the outcome for all organisations that have applied to Stage 2 on 30th January.”