Chapter 8
Quality of life: Excellence for all
Forward to Olympic gold, not back
to cuts in sport and culture
1992-1997: Arts spending cut by 13 per cent
in real terms
2005: Free entry to national museums, and
visits up 75 per cent
2012: An Olympic legacy for Britain
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Arts, culture and sport are thriving around Britain – enriching
individual lives and transforming communities, towns and
cities.They are important in their own right – as nourishment
for our imagination or a source of plain enjoyment and our
local environment should be a source of pride.We will work to
improve the quality of life of every community in Britain.
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The new Labour case
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We believe in the inherent value of arts, culture and sport. Our towns
and cities are being energised by sports and culture and as they are
regenerated the quality of life for all is transformed.As we build on this
change, our progressive challenge is to broaden participation as widely
as possible, making the links between sport and health, and culture and
well-being.We must combine the broadest base of participation with
the ability for the most talented to progress to the very top. Our third
term will embed the expectation that every child and every adult have
the maximum chance to develop their creative or sporting talents.
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Creative cities
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Art and culture are valuable for their own sake; they are also crucial to
our national prosperity. Britain’s cultural industries now make up over
eight per cent of our national income; and from computer games to
the fine arts, British talent is gaining global recognition and generating
real wealth. This is one of the fastest growing and fastest changing
areas of the economy. And the transformation of our great cities is, in
great part, a story of culture-led regeneration.We are proud of the
record of Labour-led councils in leading this transformation, from
Gateshead to Greenwich.
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To help young talent get the right start we will work to establish
Creative Apprenticeships. Through the National Endowment for
Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) we are funding the
Creative Pioneer Academy which will develop the entrepreneurial
skills of recent graduates with outstanding talents and original business
ideas – and for some there will be the offer of up to £35,000 to
start their own business.
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From 2006 we will provide £12 million over two years to the Arts
Council England to promote leadership and management in the cultural
sector.We want to invest in high-flyers developing commercial
and business skills, encourage the talents of leading ethnic minority
figures and improve the links between arts and business.
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Arts, culture and museums
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Since 1997 we have increased funding for the arts by 73 per cent in
real terms.We will continue to support our finest artists and institutions
to achieve world-class standards.
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Thanks to our policy of free admissions the number of people visiting
formerly charging national museums and galleries has risen by 75 per
cent over three years. Many are first-time visitors, with the biggest
increases among children.
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Victorian City leaders left us a legacy of great local and regional museums,
and through our investment programme ‘Renaissance in the
Regions’,we are re-creating them as centres of excellence. By 2008 we
will have invested £147 million in partnerships across the country,
modernising museum collections, broadening access to new audiences
and providing a comprehensive service to schools.We will explore further
ways to encourage philanthropy to boost the quality of our public
art collections.
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We will legislate, as soon as time allows, to implement the findings of
the Heritage Protection Review, which allows the public a greater say
in listing decisions.
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Creative Sparks
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Our aim is that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in
cultural life, and we want that involvement to start as early as possible.
Creative Partnerships, our programme of support for art in schools in
our most disadvantaged areas, has already reached over 150,000 children.
We will build on this approach by rolling out our new programme
Creative Sparks to guarantee that all children and young people will be
given the chance to experience the very best of culture every year.
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Sport for all
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Our aim is to increase participation in sport year on year. Central to
this is having modern, high-quality facilities close to where people live.
£1.5 billion is being invested in sports facilities in every community.
By 2008 our aim is that almost everyone will be within 20 minutes of a
good multi-sport facility.
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Grassroots clubs are the lifeblood of sports in Britain, and week in,
week out, they are sustained by an army of volunteers. Reform of Sport
England will continue, to reduce overheads and ensure that more
money reaches the grassroots.We have put sports clubs at the forefront
of our investment plans with the £100 million Community Club
Development Scheme and mandatory rate relief at 80 per cent for registered
Community Amateur Sports Clubs already worth about £5
million.As we review the operation of the new licensing regime we will
ensure that there is not an unfair burden on local community groups,
including sports clubs.
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Investment in school sports will ensure that by 2010 all children will
receive two hours high-quality PE or sport per week. Building on that,
we pledge that by 2010 every child who wants it will have access to a
further two to three hours sport per week.
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Every child should have the chance to compete at school.We have
clamped down on the sale of playing fields: 96 per cent of schools in
School Sport Partnerships now hold at least one sports day or sports
festival each year. All secondary schools will be expected to field teams
in regular competitive fixtures.We will also establish individual and
team rankings in all the main sports, with clear and transparent success
criteria.
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Sport in the community
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To make it easier to get access to sports in your local area we will establish
Sport Direct – a single point of access for sports in the UK. One
website and one phone number will help you find out what’s going on
in your area.Together with £155 million from the Big Lottery Fund,
the Government will ensure that children who have had little access to
play facilities and those with a disability have much better access to
safe, modern playgrounds.
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Building on the lessons of the Football Foundation, we will develop a
National Sports Foundation to bring resources from the private and
voluntary sectors together with public money to invest in grassroots
sporting facilities.We will work with the Premier League and the FA to
find innovative ways of assisting community sport, including
Supporters Direct.Having passed the necessary legislation,we remain
committed to completing the sale of the Tote to a Racing Trust.
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The Olympics
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Britain’s medal hauls at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and in Athens in
2004 were the best for over 80 years, and we maintained our position
as one of the leading nations in the Paralympics.Now we are supporting
the bid to bring the Olympics to London in 2012. Our plans would
bring regeneration to the East End of London and will leave lasting
sporting, economic and cultural legacies. As we approach the
Olympics we will continue to invest in elite athletes through the
Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme for young athletes. In addition
we have launched 2012 Scholarships worth around £10,000 a year
each for our most talented 12- to 18-year-olds.
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Libraries in the information age
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Where they offer new services like childcare, after-school education
for pupils, and IT learning our libraries are successful.We will develop
a strategy for the modernisation of our libraries which builds on the
best, strengthens library leadership, sharpens customer focus and harnesses
local popular support.We will encourage further cooperation in
back-office functions and identify the best ways to improve our library
infrastructure.
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Public service broadcasting and the BBC
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We support a strong, independent and world-class BBC with clearly
defined public purposes at the heart of a healthy public broadcasting
system.We will replace the BBC Governors with a BBC Trust to
ensure that the BBC’s governance and regulation is accountable to the
licence-fee payers to whom it belongs.The licence fee will be guaranteed
for the whole of the ten-year Royal Charter that will take effect on
1 January 2007. Channel 4 will continue to be a publicly owned broadcaster
providing distinctive competition to the BBC. ITV and Five will
also be retained in our public service broadcasting system.
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Digital switchover
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The success of satelite and cable television in driving take-up of digital
shows how changes in technology bring real benefits – in terms of
greater choice, and increasingly, in access to services. Our aim is to
make those benefits available to all.We will achieve digital switchover
between 2008 and 2012 ensuring universal access to high-quality,
free-to-view and subscription digital TV.This will happen region by
region, and we will make sure that the interests of elderly people and
other vulnerable groups are protected.
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Digital challenge
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We will deliver our cross-government strategy for closing the digital
divide and using ICT to further transform public services:
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* By 2006 every school supported to offer all pupils access to computers at
home.
*A Digital Challenge for a local authority to be a national and international
pathfinder in universal digital service provision.
*A new National Internet Safety Unit to make Britain the safest place in
the world to access the internet.
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Copyright in a digital age
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We will modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual
property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age.We
will use our presidency of the EU to look at how to ensure content creators
can protect their innovations in a digital age. Piracy is a growing
threat and we will work with industry to protect against it.
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Film
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The strength of Britain’s film industry is a source of pride, and
employment.We will continue to make the UK the right place to invest
in film production.We will legislate to provide new tax reliefs that will
ensure support is delivered directly and efficiently to those who produce
films.
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We will work with the UK Film Council to achieve a higher priority for
funding film festivals around the country, in particular for the
Edinburgh Film Festival, the oldest in Britain.
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The Lottery
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Every single part of British life has been touched by the £15 billion
generated for good causes by the Lottery. Labour has made the Lottery
more inclusive and more in tune with people’s priorities.We have
created the Big Lottery Fund and given it an explicit mandate to involve
people not just in setting strategy but also in awarding grants. Our
Lottery Bill will give a duty and a power to every Lottery distributor to
involve the public more radically in decision-making at every level.
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By the end of 2005 we will put in place a new, national consultation on
the way that the National Lottery good causes proceeds are spent after
the new Lottery Licence is awarded in 2009.
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The local environment
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The quality of our local environment is vital to our well-being and our
natural environment is a key part of our national heritage.
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The environment starts at the front door, and we have made action to
improve the cleanliness of public spaces and communities a priority.
The 2005 Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act will give local
authorities and regulators the powers they have asked for to tackle litter,
graffiti, abandoned cars, fly-tipping, noise pollution and other
environmental concerns.We will further crack down on environmental
crime, minimising litter, cleaning up graffiti and tackling fly-tipping.
We will extend kerbside collection of at least two types of recyclable
materials to all households in England by 2010. Polluters will have the
opportunity to invest in environmental remediation or new local environmental
projects rather than just pay fines. Rather than ‘polluter
pays’ this new system would mean the ‘polluter improves’.
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Britain’s beaches, rivers and drinking water are now of the highest ever
quality.We have added 30,000 hectares to the green belt while exceeding
our target of building 60 per cent of new houses on brownfield
sites.We have established the first National Park in England since the
1950s.To enhance our children’s understanding of the environment
we will give every school student the opportunity to experience outof-
classroom learning in the natural environment.
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All newly developed communities – such as the Thames Gateway
Development – will be built to high environmental standards on issues
such as energy efficiency and water use, and we will develop a clear
plan to minimise the impact of new communities on the environment.
From April 2006, all new homes receiving government funding will
meet the new Code for Sustainable Buildings and we will encourage
local authorities to apply similar standards to private homes.
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Through a Marine Act, we will introduce a new framework for the
seas, based on marine spatial planning, that balances conservation,
energy and resource needs.To obtain best value from different uses of
our valuable marine resources, we must maintain and protect the
ecosystems on which they depend.
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The choice for 2010
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The Tories have always neglected the arts, seeing them as an
easy target for cuts.They do not understand the role that culture
can play in the lives of individuals, in the futures of our towns
and cities, and in the prosperity of our country.The choice is forward
with new Labour to more sport in schools, arts for all children
and young people, and continued investment in culture.Or
back to the Tories and cuts of £207 million across culture, arts
and sport.
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