Culture Recovery Fund - more support offered

Earlier this week the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced more support for businesses affected by this new strain of coronavirus, including £30 million for the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF). For those organisations who have been awarded grants in the third round of CRF (Continuity Support and Emergency Resource Support Round 1):

• All Emergency Resource Support (ERS) Round 1 and Continuity Support recipient organisations will have their funding periods extended to 31 March 2022 (previously 31 December 2021 and 31 January 2022, respectively)
• Arts Council England is granting ERS Round 1 and Continuity Support recipients permission to repurpose their grants to cover other eligible costs, to account for the changing public health environment.

To allow more organisations the opportunity to apply for further support:

• The deadline for ERS Round 2 will be extended by one week - so a “Permission To Apply” can now be submitted up to 18 January 2022.
• The Chancellor also announced earlier this week that emergency funding from Culture Recovery Fund has been increased by £30 million to help more organisations through the winter, which means there will be more budget available in ERS round 2. Arts Council England are working with DCMS to determine how this £30 million will be split across the arm’s length bodies administering the programme.
• Please share the guidance for this fund with your networks. Take a look at the guidance

Arts Council England has repurposed some of its Grant in Aid Funds to make £1.5 million immediately available to via three benevolent funds, who collectively can help those that work across a broad spectrum of creative roles – from on stage to backstage, from visual artists to those that support this work, and musicians in work and not currently employed. This investment is:

• a-n The Artists Information Company: £200,000
• Help Musicians: £650,000
• Theatre Artists Fund: £650,000 - who also have raised match funding from the theatre sector to bring the total available to £2 million

While the Mayor of London welcomes today’s announcement, the GLA will continue to work closely with the culture sector to determine whether other measures are still needed to support the sector. On 16 December, the Mayor urged the Government to consider a raft of supportive measures including full business relief for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors to be reintroduced until March 2022; an extension of the VAT scheme (currently 12.5%) for hospitality, accommodation and certain attractions beyond March 2022; and a Live Events Reinsurance Scheme that is fit for purpose.