Funding uplift for Scottish museums ‘does not go far enough’

The Scottish museum sector has welcomed an uplift for museums and culture in next year’s budget, but there are concerns that it “does not go far enough” amid soaring wage bills and maintenance costs.

The Scottish Government announced last week that it would boost funding for non-national museums by 39.3% in 2025/26, rising from just under £4m in 2024/25 to almost £5.5m next year.

This includes funding for museums and galleries across Scotland via Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS), and direct funding for the Scottish maritime, mining and fisheries museums.

National Museums Scotland will receive a 5.9% increase in its general operational costs while the National Galleries of Scotland was given a 9% boost.

The crisis-hit funding body for artists and arts organisations, Creative Scotland, received a substantial 55.6% uplift, including an additional £20m for its Multi-Year Funding Programme, after a difficult year in which it was forced to pause one of its grant schemes due to a lack of clarity over future funding.  

The budget also included a further £4m for a new Scottish Culture & Heritage Capacity Fund, which aims to address “the significant challenges faced by heritage and culture organisations across Scotland”.

Scotland’s culture secretary Angus Robertson said the “game-changing” draft budget was the largest increase in culture funding in Scotland since devolution, apart from Covid emergency funding. The Scottish Government “could not be clearer in our steadfast support for Scotland’s arts and culture sector", he added.

In its response to the budget, MGS said: “As our recent sector survey showed, the sector’s finances are increasingly fragile, with 11% of organisations fearing they are at risk of closure. And increasingly we are seeing local authorities and arms-length organisations reviewing museum services to cope with financial pressures.

“MGS has worked hard to make the case that museums and galleries deliver incredible impact for Scotland’s communities, by way of visitors spending in the economy, outreach programmes that improve educational attainment, and the well-understood benefits to public health and wellbeing from visiting museums and galleries.

“We will be exploring the detail and implications of the proposed budget with sector stakeholders, and we are well-placed to step up our support of the sector, which the new capacity fund recognises is facing significant challenges.”

Rising costs

Other museum bodies have welcomed the budget but say the funding package is likely to be inadequate in the face of rising costs. Some of the funding uplift comes after earlier cuts, such as the 5% reduction in grant-in-aid for National Museums Scotland last year.  

The National Galleries of Scotland said almost all of the extra 9% funding it has been granted will be absorbed by the increase in employer National Insurance contributions, government pay policies and rising maintenance costs.

The organisation said it was already operating on the bare minimum staffing levels and warned that, in spite of the 9% rise, it would be “increasingly challenging to reach a balanced budget”.

A spokeswoman for National Galleries of Scotland said: "We're committed to providing the widest possible access to the national art collection, but this requires adequate funding. While a 9% revenue grant-in-aid increase may seem positive, the reality is that it is not enough.

"The increase will be almost entirely absorbed by our staffing costs, after the impact of the 2025/26 public sector pay policy and employer National Insurance contribution increase has been taken into consideration.

"We already operate on the minimum staffing levels required to care for the national art collection, and for all our sites to operate safely and with integrity.

"This leaves no additional budget for our activities, including our exhibitions and events programme, and is particularly challenging with increasing costs required for the maintenance of our historic galleries, creating a risk to our building fabric and infrastructure.

“It’s our mission to make art accessible for everyone, and we will continue to do everything we can to promote wellbeing through culture. We are in the process of reviewing the allocation, but we believe it will be increasingly challenging to reach a balanced budget.”

The Museums Association (MA) said that while the uplift for museums was welcome, the sector would need a “real terms increase in funding” to address systemic underfunding.

In a statement, the MA said: “We welcome the Scottish Government’s proposed uplift to the arts and culture budget by £34 million in the 2025-36 budget.

“However, the increased spending for museums does not go far enough to address systemic underfunding and the extra costs museums are now facing, including increases to employer National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage.

“It is likely that once these costs are factored in, little will be left for ongoing operating costs. Museums need a real terms increase in funding to support them to do ambitious and transformational work connecting communities to collections.”