The gradual gentrification of Britain’s creative industries is a matter of record and an all too familiar theme. The alarm has repeatedly been sounded in recent years by senior figures in the arts. In 2022, Mark Rylance memorably questioned a distribution of cultural resources in which England’s most famous public school enjoys the luxury of two theatres, while arts education is relentlessly downgraded in the state sector.
To paraphrase Macbeth, the sound and the fury has yet to signify very much in the way of meaningful change. One recent study found that between 2020 and 2023, working-class representation across the creative industries actually declined from 26% to a paltry 19%. In a country where issues of class and status have become politically volatile – as Sir Keir Starmer rightly diagnosed during his keynote Labour conference speech on Tuesday – this is deeply undesirable from every point of view. Culturally, it means the marginalisation of perspectives that can enrich the national conversation. Economically speaking, a wealth-generating sector is missing out on a talent pool it should be trawling. Politically, the trend reinforces perceptions of the UK as an unhealthily stratified society, where the rhetoric of equal opportunity rings hollow.
News that Manchester is to pioneer the first regionally based review of working-class participation in the arts is therefore welcome and timely. The “class ceiling” inquiry, which will be headed by the former chief prosecutor for the north-west, Nazir Afzal, has pledged to produce a blueprint for change early next year. Given Whitehall’s lack of success in shifting the dial, the idea of a more locally based approach is a good one. Manchester’s historically rich working-class culture, and its vanguard status when it comes to devolution, offer grounds for hoping that steps will finally be made in the right direction.
If the headwinds holding young people back in the arts are truly to be resisted, though, a joined-up strategy on the ground will need to be supplemented by a national reset. For those without deep parental pockets to draw upon, the risks attached to pursuing a career in the creative industries are prohibitive. Underpaid, precarious work as an aspiring actor, musician or artist has been justly described as “hope labour” – a battle for survival in which mounting debt becomes a price of staying in the game. For too many young working-class people, that strategy can never be an option.
In the context of such financial anxiety, the pledge by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, this week to restore maintenance grants for some students is a significant and potentially invaluable move. Ahead of the budget, Ms Phillipson should aim to see it applied to arts subjects as well as the sciences. More broadly, the precipitous decline in public investment in culture needs to be reversed if those lacking both social and economic capital are to get a fair chance.
It should be a no-brainer. The Equity union has calculated that for every pound invested in the arts, the return for the local economy amounts to £1.27. Levelling up the arts can be a driver of growth, a source of social cohesion and a vehicle for cultural empowerment. Hopefully, after a period of much talk and little action, the city that gave us Shelagh Delaney, Caroline Aherne and the Gallagher brothers can lead the way.
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