Labour will create a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to invest in
the UK’s cultural infrastructure – across arts, music, film, theatre and
culture – as it sets out plans to build on Britain’s status as a world leader
in culture and the creative industries.

Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and Shadow Culture Secretary, Tom Watson, will
unveil the fund at an event in Hull, the UK’s 2017 City of Culture, on Monday.

Labour’s election manifesto, published last week, included a commitment to
create a pupil premium to help children of primary school age fulfil their
artistic potential.

Labour announces today that a £1 billion Culture Capital Fund will invest in
‘creative clusters’ across the country.

Labour will guarantee a Creative Future for All by:

* Establishing a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to support our world-leading
cultural industries, which have been badly hit by Tory cuts.

The fund will be one of the largest arts infrastructure funds ever created. It
will give the country’s creative sectors an opportunity to bid for extra
funding and help the UK protect its status as a creative and cultural hub in
the digital age.

It will protect and invest in live music venues in order to support grassroots
and professional music and ensure there is a vibrant music industry in all
parts of the country. Labour will review the business rates system and extend
the £1,000 pub relief to help small music venues that have been hit by rate
rises.

* Ensuring museums and art galleries remain free and invest in our heritage
sector, which is central to the identity and economy of local communities
across the country.

* Introducing a £160 million arts pupil premium for every primary school in
England to boost creative education and ensure state schools have arts
facilities of an equivalent standard to those available in many private
schools.

Shadow Culture Secretary, Tom Watson, who is a graduate of Hull University,
said:

“As a former resident I’m proud to see Hull staging world-class
cultural events and that it is attracting tourists from around the world who
want to visit the UK City of Culture.

“Labour believes that cities like Hull have demonstrated that creativity can
drive inward investment, regeneration and tourism as well as being an important
expression of local and regional identity.

“Our thriving creative industries define how we are perceived overseas and make
a vital contribution to our economy.

“Under the Tories, the arts and cultural institutions have been forced to
absorb huge cuts; under Labour, they will get the investment they deserve.

"Our £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund will give museums, galleries and
theatres in all parts of the country access to investment that can be used to
upgrade and regenerate their buildings and facilities.”

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“We want to unleash the potential of every young person not just through
education but also through culture. In every one of us there is a poet, a
writer, a singer of songs, an artist. But too few of us fulfil our artistic
ambition.

“The arts pupil premium will allow every primary school child the chance to
learn an instrument, take part in drama and dance and have regular access to a
theatre, gallery or museum. Labour will deliver a creative future for all and
culture for the many, not the few.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

·        
Labour will introduce a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to invest
in new facilities communities can be proud of and upgrade existing cultural and
creative infrastructure for the digital age. The fund will invest in creative
clusters across the country, based on a similar model to business enterprise
zones.

·        
The Cultural Capital Fund will be administered by the Arts Council
over a five-year period and help to transform the country’s cultural landscape.
This will be funded from Labour’s new National Transformation Fund, announced
in the manifesto last week, that will invest £250 billion over 10 years to
upgrade our economy.

·        
Since 2010 there are now 600 fewer music teachers, 1,200 fewer
arts teachers and 1,700 fewer drama teachers in our schools, and teaching hours
in arts subjects has fallen by nearly 38,000. New pledges in the Conservatives’
manifesto requiring 90 per cent of pupils to study the EBacc combination of
subjects by 2025 could all but wipe out creative education in our schools. Labour will revamp the EBacc and restore the importance
of creative education to the curriculum.

·        
You can download Labour’s Cultural Manifesto ‘A Creative Future
For All” at  www.labour.org.uk/culturemanifesto

400,000 university students will be freed from an average of
around £27,000 debt this autumn if Labour is elected next month, Leader of the
Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, and Shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner,
will announce today.

Tuition fees will be abolished from 2018 under a Labour Government. But Labour
is also pledging to write off the first year of fees for students planning to
start university this September.

Abolishing tuition fees will lift a total £38 billion in debt from fees over
the course of the next parliament, before a penny of interest is added.

This will give 18-year-olds sitting their A levels this summer yet another
reason to register to vote before tonight’s (22 May) midnight deadline and to
vote Labour on 8th June.

Tuition fees have trebled to over £9,000 a year since 2012 and graduates are
being held back by starting their working lives saddled with debts averaging
almost £45,000.

As well as abolishing university tuition fees, Labour will restore the
maintenance grants the Conservatives abolished in 2016 and, under its
transformative plan for a free National Education Service, will scrap college
fees for adult learners.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“The Conservatives have held students back for too long, saddling them with
debt that blights the start of their working lives. Labour will lift this cloud
of debt and make education free for all as part of our plan for a richer
Britain for the many not the few.

“We will scrap tuition fees and ensure universities have the resources they
need to continue to provide a world-class education. Students will benefit from
having more money in their pockets, and we will all benefit from the engineers,
doctors, teachers and scientists that our universities produce.”

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said:

“Labour believes everyone should have the chance to further their studies, not
just those that can afford it, and we will restore the principle that education
is free. No one should be put off from getting an education through a lack of
money or fear of debt.

“The Tories trebled tuition fees and students now rack up an average £45,000
debt. A Labour Government will stop that. If students sitting their A levels
now want a say on their future they need to register to vote before tonight’s
deadline and vote Labour on 8 June.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

·        
Labour will abolish tuition fees for home students in England
studying standard undergraduate first degrees at established universities and
further education colleges from the academic year starting in 2018 – the
earliest it will be possible to pass the legislation through parliament.
(University is already free for EU students in Scottish universities)

·        
To discourage students who are planning to start university this
September from deferring until after tuition fees are removed, we will
guarantee to immediately write off their first year of fees.

·        
Students part way through their degree will not have to pay fees
for the remainder of their course. Part-time students will be covered for the
cost of their first undergraduate degree.

·        
Students who have already graduated will be protected from above
inflation interest rate rises on existing debt. And we will look for ways to
ameliorate this debt burden in future.

·        
We will seek to provide free tuition for EU students and seek
reciprocal arrangements at EU universities as part of the Brexit negotiations.
We will remove EU and international students from the net migration figures and
preserve the current system of fees for non-EU students.

·        
The average student leaves university with almost £45,000 worth of
debt, which they would pay off through their lifetime. Under our plans this
will be reduced by an average of more £27,000 for students who don’t qualify
for a maintenance grant, and to zero for students who do.

·        
We have costed the abolition of tuition fees at £9.5 billion
annually in 2021/22 prices (the £11.2 billion figure for higher education
listed in our Grey Book published alongside the manifesto also included £1.7
billion for maintenance grants). Over four years (from 2018/19 academic year,
this is £38 billion). It will be paid for by increasing income tax for the top
5 per cent of earners and reversing the Conservatives’ cuts to corporation tax.
The £9.5 billion is an estimate of the actual revenues currently being paid to
universities through fees, and this money will all go directly back into
universities so they will not lose out.

·        
In 2015/16 there were 365,700 full-time first year students
studying their first undergraduate degrees in England (Higher Education
Statistics Agency). In 2014/15 there were 38,600 part-time students studying
their first undergraduate degree (own calculations). Assuming student numbers
stay roughly constant, approximately 400,000 students will benefit each year.