The Levelling Up White Paper was released by the Government last week. The policy and funding initiatives announced within it a number of points that may well have an impact on ALCS’s advocacy areas, such as promoting healthy high streets for bookshops and cultural policy being used as an essential tool for delivering economic and social change.

What’s the Levelling Up White Paper? It’s a manifesto pledge by the Government to reduce regional disparities across the UK.

We know that writing is an eco-system. Having all parts of that system in good working order helps authors as individuals to thrive.

High Streets
Back in November, ALCS made a submission to the Autumn Budget and Spending Review asking the Government to deliver on its promise to support small businesses and high street recovery. We were encouraged by the announcements on the Community Renewal Fund, the Future High Streets Fund and the Towns Fund, which allocates specific resources to local areas.

We know that writing is an eco-system. Having all parts of that system in good working order helps authors as individuals to thrive. Independent bookshops often promote a wider range of writers than we see thriving through online sellers alone.

Devolution
The plan to devolve further power to Mayoral Combined Authorities was also welcomed. The Northern Culture APPG recently published a comprehensive report looking at how culture, and its workforce including writers, can be supported and put at the forefront of national conversations.

One of the report’s key recommendations was that more devolution “would benefit arts, culture and heritage in a post-Covid context.” It recognised that: “Administrative infrastructure for culture across the regions and nations is uneven,” and that “The mayoral model is an effective way to deliver funding, advocacy and connectivity for the cultural sector.”

It’s important that the Government recognises that, in order for culture to recover smoothly and perform economically and socially at the levels it was pre-pandemic, regions and leadership need to have the autonomy to decide where money is best allocated.

While devolution and local funding outside the South of England is required, ALCS is concerned that deprived areas in London and the South East will be forgotten. Arts Council England and DCMS announced that 100% of its additional funding from the recent Spending Review will go to culture outside of London. It’s important that the levelling-up of the UK doesn’t have the subsequent result of levelling-down of other areas.

ALCS is glad to see that the Government recognises the impact that authors across the country have on the UK as a cultural powerhouse internationally.

Culture
We were happy to see that the Secretary of State for Culture announced a dedicated funding package for the creative sector including £18million that will go to supporting creative businesses outside of London. We hope this will include regional writing agencies and bookshops.

As the Culture Secretary said in her recent speech at the Creative Coalition, “The point is, it’s our writers and musicians and designers and composers who are most celebrated around the world today – and who do the most to sell the UK abroad.”

ALCS is glad to see that the Government recognises the impact that authors across the country have on the UK as a cultural powerhouse internationally. We hope that the distribution of the funding schemes will reflect this. We have been concerned in the past by the awarding of Cultural Recovery grants, as they have been focused on institutions and buildings, rather than going directly to creators and freelancers in the sector of which writers make up a large proportion.

Writing for TV, film and literature contributes so much to the cultural sector. It will be integral to improving the social, economic and human capital of areas across the UK and we as an organisation that represents writers and creators will continue to work at engaging with the Government on how best to do this.